Are you facing disciplinary action at work?

Colin Foote, Director - Employment & Equality Law

Most employers have a disciplinary procedure in place. This is normally contained in their disciplinary and grievance policy and will outline exactly what will happen if there are any issues about performance, conduct at work or attendance.

Usually, before starting the disciplinary process with you, your employer will have an informal chat with you about the issue, as long as it is not serious enough to warrant consideration of dismissal for gross misconduct. This allows you to improve your performance or attendance and could help to avoid a disciplinary meeting and formal action being taken if improvements happen.

If the informal discussion does not work, your employer will follow their formal disciplinary process. You should have access to this policy and ensure that you read it as it should contain details about what types of behaviour or performance issues could result in disciplinary action and should outline how you can appeal the decision.

The policy will also outline the process that is followed if you face disciplinary action. This will cover:

• The letter sent to advise you of the issues
• The meeting to talk about the problem or issue
• The decision following the meeting and the action to be taken
• The appeal process

These details may differ slightly from organisation to organisation, but ACAS (the union that protects employees) has produced a Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures and although there is no requirement by law for your employer to follow this code, they may face a higher award against them at tribunal if they lose and have not followed the code.

Having policies in place should take away any suggestion that the disciplinary process is unfair. However, if you are dismissed and you do not believe the dismissal is fair or that the correct procedure has been followed, you may have a claim against your former employer.

If this has happened to you, you should speak to a specialist employment law solicitor for advice as they can quickly tell you about your chance of making a successful claim.

For more information about this article or any aspect of our employment and equality law solutions, get in touch with Colin Foote at cfoote@sullivanslaw.uk