Double standards over political activity in our workplace Code of Conduct

[Maskbailey]

I had a nosy online at some colleagues. A director stood as a political candidate 2 years ago for a vote in their area. They didn’t win but it showed how many votes they got.

I don’t get it. We have a Code of Conduct you sign once a year which is quite stern saying you won’t become a member or be associated with a political party because it could make the company look bad yet this director tried to become an MP. Our Chief Executive uses the annual staff development day to put forward his political rants which is inappropriate.

I don’t see why it is one rule for management but everyone else is threatened or silenced by this Code of Conduct.

It is usually the case. Once my former MD caused a storm online by making a comment about another country. It was all smoothed over. Someone on the factory floor saying the same thing would have been fired.

Forbidding political membership seems very excessive - is that even allowed in the UK?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with membership of any mainstream political party, (ie one that actually has MPs).

Is no one in your firm allowed to have any kind of opinion?

Or are media friendly left wing ones only allowed?

You have a workplace code forbidding you from becoming a member or be associated with a political party?? That is incredibly harsh, and even seems to be of questionable legality.

Police aren’t allowed to be a member of any political party or openly show any political affiliations. Bizarrely there wasn’t the same rule for civilians and we had a PCSO who tried to become a councillor for the BNP. Lots of complaints from members of the public but nothing that could be done as long as his posts didn’t veer into anything overtly offensive or racist.

OP your employer cannot restrict employees from joining a political party unless you are employed in a specific profession/organisation where political membership is prohibited by law eg civil service.

What!? Is this in the UK how on earth can they restrict someone joining a political party that is ridiculous

The Chief Executive has a left wing view and will rant at the annual staff day and insult anyone who has a moderate view or differs to his.

Yeah, in the UK. It shocks me how they think they have the right to control how you think in your spare time. Yet the Chief Exec can rant and his Director can apply to be an MP.

So trying to become an MP and succeeding are different things. I’d be pretty sure stanis not against your policy but succeeding would mean resigning.

and are you sure it explicitly says membership of political parties is not permitted? I do find that quite hard to believe and wonder if you’ve misunderstood

I understand if they have aspirations and want to succeed. But they have explicitly stated in the Code of Conduct you are not to be a member of a political party which this colleague is and it is in the public domain.

I know what the Code of Conduct says it showed me how controlling the company is.

Can you post the relevant section of the code of conduct here? Anonymised of course. It’s, to put it mildly, highly unusual.

Is it possible you’ve misunderstood? Do you work in the public sector as if not this sounds very unusual.

Regardless, you sound very unhappy there. Probably better to spend your time focussing on a job search than overthinking managements possible political affiliations.

A quick google says that civil servants are permitted to be members of political parties, but not to bring this into their work. They can stand for local elections.

I bet if someone challenged this legally it would be doubtful to stand up, assuming that this is not somewhere bound by law where you cannot stand for parliament or local election.

Even when I had this in a local government job about not standing for election, there was no prohibition on joining a political party.

How would he know what other people's views are unless they tell him?

It was always said that when in polite company you should always avoid the topics of sex, religion and politics; and it would probably be best if people steered clear of those topics in the workplace as well.

Not my firm now but no, bad PR. Any bad PR, whatever that meant at that time.

I have only heard of VERY specific areas where people are not allowed to be members of political parties….

Yeah-course he will….

He did, why would I have the need to lie.

My partners boss is similar - though he will have wee tory style rants about taxes and immigration.
Its quite funny as he just made 1 employee from the EU a director and has another that is on via from an African country...OH and his IT man is Chinese.

He also likes to take advantage of any funding loophole he can find to get funding/money from the government.(even let on to the government that he still has his apprentice). Actually got himself banned from some federation because of that.
Refuses to pay the rent the council state and will only pay them what he paid the 1st year he took the lease out (like 16yrs ago!), but goes on about benefits scroungers, and how no one works hard (his salary is like 12k, and he gets about 60k in dividends a year, takes about 60 days off hill walking, and charges companies just to write quotations for them).

I’m assuming he would have resigned if he became an MP? Is it not similar to applying for a new job in another company?

Are all civil servants prohibited from joining political parties or is it just those at a certain level of seniority?