‘Reveal affairs, if any, in 3 months’: BP to staff

British multinational oil and gas firm, BP has incurred the wrath of its employees, so much so that they are threatening legal action. Why? The company has demanded that all its employees reveal their intimate relationships with colleagues, if any, within three months. That isn’t all; staff members have been told that if they fail to disclose their relationships, they would be fired!

Why is BP suddenly so insistent on employees disclosing their affairs with colleagues? Well, in December, Bernard Looney, former CEO of BP, was terminated for misconduct because he failed to disclose his past relationships to the company’s board. He lost millions of pounds in pay and bonuses following his termination. Investigations brought to light that Looney helped promote women colleagues with whom he had been in a relationship. The incident tarnished the image of the company and raised doubts regarding its work culture. Until this episode happened, employees were only required to reveal their relationships with colleagues if there was risk of conflict of interest, such as the parties involved being in the same team or if one was reporting to the other.

Now employees at BP have been asked to disclose even past relationships with colleagues, from over three years ago! While the company may have demanded this information simply to find out whether promotions in the past were fair and justified, this demand in the present does not appear ethical and media reports say that BP is risking lawsuits by making such a demand. Also, legally, trying to apply new policies or rules to actions of the past violates the employment contract and of course invades privacy.

The company has a 90,000-strong workforce, with about 4,500 of them occupying senior ranks. If the company does end up facing a lawsuit, it may have to cough up a huge amount in compensation.