The Bribery Act 2010 makes it an offence to offer, or receive, a bribe. Gifts can fall into the grey area between a genuine gift and a bribe. Your client needs to review the circumstances behind offering the gifts to ensure they are not committing bribery.
For a gift to constitute a bribe, the intention of the giver has to be to induce or reward improper behaviour. As your client is intending to give these gifts to thank staff and reward them for their hard work, this will not be classed as bribery under the legislation. This remains the case even where your client decides to splurge and buy expensive presents because the Bribery Act looks at the reasons for giving the gift, and not the gift itself.
Where your client is considering giving gifts to customers or clients, it will be a good idea to have a bribery register. This allows your client to record details about the gift, including the estimated value, the recipient and the reasons for providing the gift. Again, so long as there is no intention to induce or reward improper behaviour, bribery will not occur.
Although giving gifts to staff will not be classed as bribery, there are other areas your client should be aware of to avoid causing any complaints. Christmas gifts should be offered to all members of staff, regardless of whether they are in a senior or junior position. This will ensure complaints and grievances are not being raised about bias or favouritism towards certain members of staff. This becomes more important if the person who doesn’t receive a gift has a particular protected characteristic, for example, they are of a different race than staff who were given gifts. They could argue that they have been discriminated against because their protected characteristic was the reason for not getting a gift.
The subject matter of the gift itself should also be carefully considered. Most employers will go down the usual route of providing a bottle of wine, however, this could upset those who don’t drink alcohol or those with certain religious beliefs. Your client could decide to offer an alternative choice of gifts, such as wine or chocolates, and allow staff to choose their gift themselves. They could also offer gift vouchers. So long as the options are of similar price and value, this will reduce the likelihood of complaints being made.
