When your disciplinary decisions and actions are examined you must be able to demonstrate that any formal action you have taken was reasonable, justified and proportionate. There is no hard and fast rule on how you should do this; it will depend on the circumstances of individual cases. Your actions should, where possible, be guided by the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary Procedures. If you are a small employer an Employment Tribunal will take into consideration the resources available to you when deciding whether it was practical for you to follow all the steps set out in the Code. However, regardless of the size of your organisations there are a number of essential elements to ensure fairness whatever the disciplinary situation. Employers must: - act consistently - raise and deal with issues promptly and should not unreasonably delay meetings, decisions or confirmation of those decisions. - carry out an investigation thorough enough that the facts of each case can be established - inform employees of the basis of the problem and always give employees an opportunity to put their case in response BEFORE any decisions are made. This means that a formal disciplinary hearing should be held. - always allow employees to be accompanied at any formal disciplinary meeting regardless of whether the organisation recognises trade unions or not - always allow an employee to appeal against any formal penalty applied Employers should try their utmost to have different people carry out the investigation and the disciplinary hearing. One person should not act as judge and jury. Where a suspension with pay is considered necessary this period should be kept as brief as possible and be kept under review. Notification of the suspension should make it clear that the suspension is not part of any disciplinary action Contact Metis HR for professional advice on planning and conducting appropriate, thorough investigations 0844 249 1133
I specialise in protecting employers from their own employees.
With nearly 30 years experience of working in large unionised environments I cut my 'HR Teeth'…
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