Disciplinaries & dismissals

What is the point of a disciplinary procedure?

The real point is to uphold discipline and correct discipline breaches. ACAS (a government body) set the standards for employers must follow. All myHRdept policies are written to be compliant wuth ACAS guidelines.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

What does 'gross misconduct' mean?

The most serious misconduct e.g. theft or assault, as a result of which the employee may normally be dismissed without notice (bit a fair procedure must still be followed.)

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

When is an employee entitled to be accompanied?

During any hearing that might result in some formal action effecting their employment or the termination of their employment. Generally this means disciplinary and grievance hearings (but not investigations). The right of accompaniment also applies to meetings following a request for flexible working or flexible retirement.

A companion is entitled to address the meeting, present the case on behalf of the employee, sum up the meeting and ask questions of the chair of the meeting. They may not however answer questions on behalf of the employee.

If the employee is to be accompanied by a TU representative, HR Outsource customers are asked to contact their myHRdept HR Advisor.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

Is an employee entitled by law to bring his lawyer with him as a companion?

No. In the context of disciplinaries and grievances the law stipulates a fellow employee or a paid or lay trade union official who is certificated by the union to act as a companion. Some Company’s procedures extend to allowing spouses, friends or lawyers but this is beyond the legal requirement. For flexible working and retirement requests a ‘companion’ is restricted to a fellow employee.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

What do I need to write in a disciplinary letter?

To comply with the law and good practice you may need to write several letters during a disciplinary or grievance process:

A letter inviting an employee to attend a hearing stating the reasons for the hearing, the potential outcome e.g. dismissal, and informing them of their right to be accompanied
A letter confirming the outcome of the hearing and of the right of appeal
A letter acknowledging the grounds of appeal and inviting the employee to an appeal hearing
A letter confirming the outcome of the appeal.

A summary letter will summarise the proceeding but will also warn what will happen if the behaviour or poor performance continues. Where dismissal has taken place, the letter will explain about payment of outstanding monies or recovery of overpayments and about the P45 etc.

myHRdept can supply finished letters for you, and for HR Outsource customers we also provide case management services.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

What are the costs of getting it wrong?

If you fail to follow fair process (as per the ACAS guidelines) any disciplinary action including dismissal will almost certainly be found to be ‘automatically unfair’. Compensation awards are capped at £83,682 (from April 2018) for unfair dismissal (except where illegal discrimination is involved in which case there is no upper limit.)

Actual awards tend to be rather lower, and surprisingly it is the costs of preparation and representation that can be rather more expensive (upwards of £10K is not uncommon), and these costs are hardly ever reclaimable from the other side, even if you win. At myHRdept we have access to barristers at discounted rates for the benefit of our HR Outsource customers.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

What should do I do to contact an employee who has not turned up for work and not made contact?

The employee is AWOL (absent without leave) and you should make reasonable attempts to make contact – don’t limit this to an email or two or a letter – what would you do to try and make contact with a relative if they went missing?) In some cases AWOL employees may be dismissed, but this very much depends on the length of the AWOL and the employee’s record generally. The situation shouldn’t just be left though – if the employment isn’t properly terminated (myHRdept can advise how) the employee will remain employed and continue clocking up holiday pay entitlement.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

Where an employee has not turned up for a dismissal hearing, do I still need to give an opportunity for them to appeal?

ACAS guidelines require the employer to rechedule disciplinary hearings (usually more than once) if the employee does not turn up. As a rule of thumb if the employee doesn’t turn up the second time they can be warned that a third no show will result in the hearing being held in their absence. It’s good practice in these circumstances to offer the chance to send writtent submissions or a proxy.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

What sort of investigation should I undertake prior to disciplinary/dismissal hearings?

This really depends on the nature of the misconduct or poor performance you are dealing with. If an employee is being persistently late to work, a short investigatory discussion might be enough to establish the facts. If an employee has been accused of sexually harassing another you will need a more in depth investigation. As well as interviewing the person accused, you will need to interview the alleged victim and any witnesses. Investigatory interviews etc should be carried out by someone other than the person who will chair the discipinary/dismissal hearing. If the investigating manager believes there is a case to be answered he should pass the investigation file to the manager who will be responsible for managing the disciplinary/dismissal process.

HR Outsource customers should contact their dedicated HR Advisor to discuss the investigation stage. We can also undertake investigations on behalf of HR Outsource clients or others on a rate per day basis.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

I am the only manager. Can I conduct an investigation, chair a hearing and an appeal?

Whilst this is not recommended – Best practice being that different individuals undertake each stage, if you are the only person in a position to investigate, chair the hearing and chair the appeal, then nothing else could be done, unless you wish to consider outsourcing part of the process to myHRdept. (NB HR18 and HR24 Outsource customers have site time included in their standard service schedule which could be used for this purpose.

However, if you decided to undertake the process on your own you must attempt to be as unbiased as possible at each new stage and ensure that you consider any new evidence fairly and honestly.

You can watch a series of videos for disciplinary procedures here.

Disciplinaries & dismissals

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Disciplinaries & dismissals

Do you need HR support?

We're here to help

Contact Us​

Contact Us