Thousands of executives and middle-managers at BP have been ordered to disclose relationships with colleagues after former boss Bernard Looney quit over office affairs.
A new policy, announced by email last week, orders staff at the FTSE 100 company to disclose any intimate relationships they are having with fellow employees or risk losing their jobs.
The revised rules also explicitly ban anyone in BP’s 90,000-strong workforce from “directly or indirectly managing” anyone with whom they have been in a close relationship, as well as family members.
On top of this, some 4,500 managers have been given a three-month deadline to disclose any office affairs from the past three years.
They have been given a cut-off point of September 1 to make their disclosures, according to Reuters, which first reported the policy.
On Monday, a BP spokesman said a key difference in the new policy was that employees must now disclose colleague relationships in all circumstances, regardless of whether they felt they posed a conflict of interest.
The move comes after BP announced Mr Looney’s shock resignation in September, following claims he had not been fully truthful with the company’s board about his own office affairs.
Mr Looney was originally questioned about his workplace relationships in autumn 2019 during the recruitment process that led to his appointment as chief executive.
He was then asked again in summer 2022 – when it was later found that he had given “inaccurate and incomplete assurances”, BP said.
In December, the company cut short Mr Looney’s notice period and said he would forfeit £32m in pay because of “serious misconduct”.
Since then, BP has concluded an investigation into Mr Looney’s actions with the help of law firm Freshfields, according to Reuters.
The company has not revealed the investigation’s findings or conclusions.
Murray Auchincloss, BP’s new boss, formally succeeded Mr Looney in January.
He is married to a fellow BP employee, a relationship he disclosed before becoming chief financial officer in 2020.
A BP spokesman said: “BP periodically updates our compliance policies, procedures and systems.
“Following the refresh of BP’s code of conduct in January 2023, our conflicts of interest policy was scheduled for review this year – it was last updated in 2018.
“The update that has been made follows the review, which included benchmarking with comparable companies and organisations and review of good industry practice.”
In December, Mr Looney said he was “proud” of his record at BP, adding that he was “disappointed” with how his dismissal had been handled.