Employers conducting staff disciplinary are advised to take notes of what has been said and discussed during the investigatory meeting, disciplinary hearing and appeal meeting.
Copies of the meeting notes must be given to the employee concerned within reasonable time after each meeting so that the employee involved can digest the notes and highlight if there were misunderstanding as to what was discussed.
It is important to give the employee concerned the opportunity to comment on the notes and evidences discussed particularly where the case is serious enough to warrant dismissal of the staff.
The staff disciplinary procedures are used to resolve disputes between employers and employees fairly and reasonably. It is not meant to use for abusing staff or with intention to discriminate the staff you do not like.
The ACAS Code of Practice 1 suggests that refused or failed to provide copies of the meeting notes to the staff concerned is a breach of statutory disciplinary procedures and constitutes an unfair disciplinary process.
Take an example, a worker was disciplined and a decision of misconduct was communicated and was sacked immediately. Copies of the disciplinary meeting notes should be provided to the staff about the same time the decision of misconduct was communicated so that the staff has the opportunity to comment on the notes and evidences and decide accordingly whether or not to make an appeal against the decision.
As a reasonable person would you say it is fair to provide the disciplinary meeting notes to the staff after the appeal hearing? It is obvious that the employer has no intention to give the staff opportunity to comment on the meeting notes and the outcome of the disciplinary process is probably pre-decided and matters are pre-judged. The process is just a formality.
The staff can make a claim against the employers for being unfairly treated at work. This will definitely attract unwelcome publicity for your company.
Concise Accountancy – Making handling staff disputes simple for small businesses
