Disciplinary procedure is never fun.  But from time to time it is necessary to have to deal with staff members that may not be performing at the required standard or who have problems or issues that need to be dealt with. Good disciplinary procedure is absolutely essential to ensure that you are able to carry out the necessary actions within acceptable guidelines to solve any issues before they escalate.

Your disciplinary procedure needs to be developed with a sound understanding of employment law. It should always be included in your employment agreement. It should also be fair and clearly understood by all parties to the agreement. The agreement should also detail how the disciplinary procedure will operate, what guidelines will be followed, how decisions will be made and what possible outcomes there could be including dismissal.

Example:

Before entering into a formal disciplinary process, the Employee will be given a reasonable opportunity to improve. This may be in the form of an informal verbal reprimand. The intent is to encourage the Employee to behave in a manner that is appropriate to their employment. In some cases it may be more appropriate to move directly to the formal procedures.

Before considering any form of disciplinary action employment law states an investigation into the alleged misconduct must be carried out promptly.

Prior to any disciplinary meeting, employment law requires the Employee be advised of the specific allegation and of the likely consequences should the allegation be found to be true. The Employee will also be advised that they are entitled to have a support person at the formal disciplinary meeting. During the meeting the Employee will be given an opportunity to explain or deny the allegation. The Employee's explanation and any mitigating circumstances will be considered before a decision is made on the appropriate course of action.

If the Employer decides to issue a warning, this will be formally and clearly issued and confirmed in writing. The Employee will be advised of any corrective action that is required and the consequence of continued or further instances of misconduct or substandard job performance.

There are 4 steps in the formal disciplinary procedure that will generally be followed:

Warnings are not limited to repetitions of the same or a similar offence but may be applied to offences of a different nature.  All warnings remain effective for a period of 3 months.

Where misconduct or substandard work performance is considered serious enough, a written warning, final written warning, or dismissal, may be issued without a verbal or written warning preceding it.  This is a clearly written disciplinary process and is procedurally fair and simple to understand.

If your employment agreement has this process in place then you should never go wrong. It is important to keep in mind though that if you have a process in your employment agreement then you must follow it to the letter! Lots of companies get themselves into trouble regularly because they don’t follow a good process and end up in either mediation or the employment court and find themselves in the wrong because the process they followed was deemed to be unfair to the employee. 

There are many other traps that you can fall into when undertaking a disciplinary procedure. Call or enquire online now for further information click here