Can an employment contract regulate relationships between employees?
<p><a href="https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/3801/25229">An answer to a Workplace question</a> raised my curiosity. The idea is that a company could legally (contractually) forbid its employees to have a relationship.</p>

<p>Is this at all possible somewhere? (The discussion under that answer seems to point to the US).</p>

<p>How is "relationship" defined in such a case? Talking OK but holding hands not OK? Going to the cinema OK but sleeping together not OK? </p>

<p>Contracts are allowed to address or stipulate anything that is not illegal.  Employers are generally allowed to apply restrictions that do not discriminate against protected characteristics.  I.e., unless there is a law against it, employers are almost certainly allowed to regulate the relationships between employees.</p>

<p>In the U.S. this is quite common.  For example, many companies have <a href="http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/employee-rights-book/chapter5-7.html" rel="nofollow">"anti-nepotism" and/or "fraternization" policies</a>.  The former restricts employment of people with a (usually pre-existing) familial relationship.  The latter restricts <em>behavior that could be perceived as "dating."</em>  Sometimes the restrictions only apply to employees with a supervisor/subordinate relationship, but it is not unusual to see a blanket prohibition.</p>

contract-law employment