When is a warning not a warning? The simple answer is when it’s not carried out correctly. We get a surprising number of calls from employers who have reached the end of their tether. They’ve given an employee lots of verbal and written warnings with no improvement. Now they feel the need to remove the employee. It comes as a shock to them when we say, “that’s risky”. Let me give you an example of what I mean A business provides a facilities service to clients. They send teams of employees into a client premises, often out of hours. The intention is that the client will come into work the morning after and be delighted by the results. Over a 10 year period this had not always been the case when the business sent in one particular employee. His work was not always of a high standard. Over the ten year period the employer had given the employee a number of verbal and written warnings relating to his poor standard of work. One morning the Facilities business owner received an irate phone call from a client about the less than sparkling state of his premises after having paid for an overnight service. The […]
The Chair of any Disciplinary Hearing finds the question, “How do you make sure disciplinary action is fair?” taxing. Being able to demonstrate that any formal disciplinary action you have taken was reasonable, justified and proportionate is critical. There is no hard and fast rule on how to do this. It will depend on the circumstances of individual cases. Any disciplinary action should, where possible, be guided by the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary Procedures. If you’re a small employer, an Employment Tribunal will take into account the resources that were available to you. Because smaller organisations may find is harder to follow all the steps set out in the Code. But, regardless of the size of your organisation, there are a number of essential elements to ensure fairness with disciplinary action. Employers must: act consistently. raise and deal with issues promptly. You shouldn’t 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. give employees an opportunity to put in their response before decisions are made. hold a formal disciplinary hearing . always allow employees to […]
