The kiss cam video of US tech firm Astronomer’s married chief executive Andy Byron cuddling the company’s head of HR Kirstin Cabot at a Coldplay concert went viral a few weeks ago. I’ve been asked this question a few times since.

If the Coldplay cuddlers had been employees in England and Wales rather than in America would it have been unfair dismissal if they had been sacked for what they did?

In America, employment is at will, meaning employees can be dismissed for no reason and without formal process, provided there is no discrimination and provided their contractual rights to notice are met.

American employees do not have the statutory right of unfair dismissal that employees in England and Wales with more than two years’ service have. For a dismissal to be fair in England and Wales there has to be a fair reason for that dismissal and a fair process must be followed.

Most senior UK employment contracts include provisions that stipulate the duties of executives during their employment and these include catch all provisions that the executive will:

In addition, handbooks often have value statements of the principles of the employer and these generally include integrity, respect, honesty and accountability.

Value........

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