Disciplinary policy and procedure

POLICY

It is the policy of the company that all employees should achieve and maintain agreed standards of conduct, attendance and performance and that everything within reason will be done to help all employees achieve these standards. If these standards are not achieved and disciplinary action has to be taken against employees it should:

  • Be undertaken only in cases where good reason and clear evidence exist;
  • Be appropriate to the nature of the offence that has been committed;
  • Be demonstrably fair and consistent with previous action in similar circumstances;
  • Take place only when employees are aware of the standards that are expected of them or the rules with which they are required to conform;
  • Allow employees the right to be accompanied by a representative or colleague of their choice during any formal proceedings;
  • Allow employees the right to know exactly what charges are being made against them and to respond to those charges.
  • Allow employees the right of appeal against any disciplinary action through the Personal Grievance procedure under the Employment Relations Act 2000. (Internal appeal system?)

The disciplinary process has as its main aim the improvement of an employee’s conduct, attendance and performance. To ensure that this is the driving force, the first problem (if it is of a minor misconduct) will be dealt with informally and will not be seen as part of the disciplinary procedure, but merely an acknowledgement by the organisation to the employee that the standards are not being achieved. The employee will be informed that if the problem re-occurs that the disciplinary procedure will be invoked. This informal discussion will only take place for very minor problems. Problems that are more serious will be treated immediately through the disciplinary process.

RULES

The company is responsible for ensuring that up-to-date rules are agreed between the company and the employees, and when agreed are published and available to all employees.

The following are general statements of expected behaviour;

  1. The employee will behave at all times in a way that does not bring the employer or any other employee into disrepute.
  2. All employees will perform at or above the standards set out in their Job Description.
  3. The employee will immediately inform the employer of any potential conflict of interest.
  4. Employees will be available for work at the required time and will (apart from illness) be willing and able to carry out their duties during the time they are at work.
  5. Employees will not without express permission from the employer carry out any work for them selves or any one else in the employer’s premises and will not use the employer’s equipment for any other reason than those connected with the job they are employed to do.
  6. Employees will respect the confidentiality of the employer at all times. Any information gained through their employment will not be disclosed to a third party.
  7. Employees will obey the Health and Safety rules at all times, and will immediately inform the employer if any one else is in breach of these rules.

Any breach of the above rules will be handled through the discipline process. A breach of any rule will be treated as;

  1. Minor misconduct
  2. Misconduct
  3. Serious misconduct.

What follows are examples each level of misconduct. THESE LISTS ARE NOT EXHAUSTIVE AND ARE ONLY MEANT TO ILLUSTRATE THE KIND OF THINGS THAT WILL FALL INTO EACH CATEGORY

Minor misconduct:

Lateness

Minor problems with performance (mistakes that don’t cost any money)

Behaviour that is rude to managers or work colleagues.

Misconduct

More than two (2) examples of any of the above

Mistakes that are serious and cost up to $250.00 to rectify

Behaviour that is rude to customers

Behaviour or performance that is unacceptable but is not so serious that the employer would want to end the relationship.

Serious misconduct

More than two (2) examples of any of the above

Mistakes that are serious and cost more than $250.00 to rectify

Behaviour or performance that is so serious that the employer would want to end the relationship

Examples of such behaviour are:

  • Physical assault
  • Intentional damage misuse and/or dangerous of vehicles and/or equipment.
  • Possession of drugs (other than prescribed drugs)
  • Consumption of drugs (other than prescribed drugs) or alcohol during the hours of work
  • Reporting for work under the influence of drugs or alcohol that in the opinion of the manager leaves the employee impaired to perform their duties. If the drugs are prescribed then no disciplinary action will be taken, but the employee will be sent home.
  • Falsification of records
  • Breaking any Health and Safety rules.
  • Unauthorised removal of any property of the employer or any other employee.
  • Any other form of dishonesty or criminal damage in connection with company property, or the property of any other employee
  • Any other behaviour which is considered as serious as any of the above.

PROCEDURE

The procedure is carried out in the following stages:

  1. Formal Verbal warning. A verbal formal warning is given to the employee in the first instance of (minor) misconduct (following the informal discussion). The warning is administered by the employee’s immediate manager it states the exact nature of the offence, and indicates what if any future disciplinary action will be taken against the employee if another offence occurs within a specified time limit. A record of the verbal warning will be placed on the employee’s personnel file and will remain on file for 6 months, after which time it will be physically removed and destroyed.
  2. Formal Written Warning. A written formal warning is given to the employee in the first instance of more serious offences (mis-conduct) or after more than one instance of minor misconduct. The warning is administered by the employee’s immediate manager, it states the exact nature of the offence, and indicates what if any future disciplinary action will be taken against the employee if another offence occurs within a specified time limit. A copy of the written warning is placed in the employee’s personnel record file but is destroyed 12 months after the date on which it was given, if the intervening service has been satisfactory. The employee is required to read and sign the formal warning.
  3. Final Written Warning.A final written warning is given to the employee at the second instance of mis-conduct, or after more than 2 instances of minor misconductA final written warning is administered by the employee’s immediate manager, it states the exact nature of the offence, and indicates what if any future disciplinary action will be taken against the employee if another offence occurs within a specified time limit. A copy of the written warning is placed in the employee’s personnel record file but is destroyed 18 months after the date on which it was given, if the intervening service has been satisfactory. The employee is required to read and sign the formal warning.
  4. Further Disciplinary Action. If, despite previous warnings, an employee still fails to reach the required standards in a reasonable period of time, (up to 18 months) it will become necessary to consider further disciplinary action. The action taken may be up to three days’ suspension without pay, or summary dismissal, or any other action short of dismissal determined by the manager. Only the Senior Manager has the authority to dismiss an employee.
  5. Summary Dismissal. An employee may be summarily dismissed (instant dismissal without notice) in the event of one occurrence of a very serious problem (serious mis-conduct). Only the senior manager has the authority to summarily dismiss an employee.

The following table is presented as a guide to the management action that is likely to be used following each level of problem.

PROBLEM / SUGGESTED MANAGEMENT ACTION
1st minor misconduct / Informal talk with employee
(this is not part of the formal procedure)
2nd minor misconduct / First formal warning (verbal)
Stage One of the procedure
1st misconduct or
3rd minor misconduct / First written warning
Stage Two of the procedure
2nd misconduct or
4th minor misconduct / Final written warning
Stage Three of the procedure
Serious misconduct or
3rd misconduct or
5th minor misconduct / Dismissal
Stage Four of the procedure

Managers have the right to decide what stage to enter the procedure, but generally speaking the level of the offence and the number of times the individual has committed that level of offence is a good guide.
How to handle a discipline problem

One of the best ways to ensure that employees engage in conduct and performance that is acceptable is to make sure that they are aware that you are aware there is a problem as early as possible. The first time you become aware of an employee under performing a little, or behaving in a way that is against the rules but is not really serious then have a private word with them.

Take them out of the public area and ask them why they are under performing or behaving badly (i.e. breaking the rules). Listen to their reason and either accept and offer any help to ensure that it doesn’t carry on, or if you don’t accept it (and the decision to accept the reason or not is yours) tell the employee that what is going on is unacceptable and is not to happen again.

Inform the employee that what you are doing (this discussion) is not a part of the Discipline procedure, but warn the employee that if it does happen again you will have no alternative but to move into the discipline procedure.

Make no official record of the discussion but keep a note in your diary that it took place.

Most people will accept that they can’t carry on operating the way they are and they will change their behaviour. If the behaviour doesn’t change and the problem happens again then follow the instructions below.

Operating the Disciplinary Procedure

It is important that all employees are treated fairly if they are the subject of a disciplinary complaint. To achieve this level of consistency managers should operate as follows in every case except where the problem is seen as serious misconduct.

Identifying the problem

Your ability to identify the problem and the subsequent use of the discipline process are dependent on your knowledge of the rules, agreements, conventions and custom and practice. Without such knowledge you are virtually blind to all but the most obvious breaches of the rules. With that knowledge as a background you have to set down the facts of the situation, as they appear prior to investigation, in a logical manner. One way to do this is to ask the following simple questions:

WHO / Who is involved in the matter? This will involve the alleged offender plus any victims, witnesses etc.
WHERE / Where did the incident take place?
WHEN / When did it happen?
WHAT / What has been suggested to have happened?
WHY / Do we know why the action took place?
HOW / How does the incident break the rules?
(If the answer to this question is "no rules have been broken" then the discipline process should not be used. It may be that some other managerial action such as instigating training may be required.) If the answer to this question is that one or more rules have been broken then you should embark on an investigation.

Investigation

The investigation should take place immediately following the discovery of a suspected breach of the rules and immediately prior to convening a disciplinary interview. The intention should be to find out all the information in order to enable the manager to decide whether to convene a disciplinary interview.

There are several skills required if an investigation is to be carried out properly and well.

The first skill is to approach the investigation with an open and unbiased mind. It is wrong to assume anything about the outcome of the investigation until it has reached its conclusion.

The skills of interviewing are also needed because several different people will need to be interviewed; witnesses, the alleged offender, and any one else the manager believes may be able to throw light on the events being investigated. Questioning techniques to obtain information, listening skills to hear the information and analytical skills to make sense of all the different information obtained in order to achieve a clear picture of what actually happened. Remember when asking questions of those who were present at the event, that each individual will see the event through their own eyes and will make their own individual interpretation of the event. The manager's job is to get behind these interpretations to see the actual events rather than what each individual thinks happened.

At the end of the investigation the manager needs to decide what to do now. There are several alternatives open to the manager only one of which is to convene a disciplinary interview. The manager could choose to do nothing, or set up training processes or anything else that the manager believes will improve the situation. The choice is the managers. The only requirement is that the manager needs to understand why the decision was made, how it will improve the situation more than any other alternative and if necessary be capable of justifying the decision to a higher level manager.

Preparing the interview

It is the manager's responsibility to organise the interview. First consider the following general points:

LOCATIONWhere will the interview be held? The location should be free from interruption and should accommodate all of those who will be required to attend.

NOTIFICATIONEveryone who is required to attend must be notified, this includes the individual concerned, their representative (if one is asked for), witnesses and another manager to take an accurate record.

REPRESENTATIONEveryone has the right to representation at all levels and stages of discipline. The individual has the right to choose any person at all as their representative and management should accept and allow that choice to participate in the process.

EXPECTATIONSHow the individual concerned is expected to respond? What strategies have been planned to deal with unfavourable responses? Remember the individual concerned is hardly likely to be behaving normally; this will be a very stressful occasion. The task of the manager is to reach a useful outcome and to do that the manager needs the individual to behave as naturally as possible. Try to make it as easy as possible for the individual to tell the truth.

ER/IR PROBLEMSAre there any current problems in the organisation that may be affected either way by your decision?

PRECEDENTSAre there any precedents set for similar problems and circumstances?

Then think about the structure of the interview itself. What follows is an indication of the general pattern of disciplinary interviews, and should be treated as such rather than as a template, which should be followed mechanically.

Manager's opening statement

This will outline the purpose of the interview. It should make it clear that the interview is taking place within the disciplinary procedure, identify the stage in the procedure at which it is held and identify the level of sanction available at that stage of the procedure should the breach of the rules be found to have taken place. This last is particularly important. The aim of the manager should be to obtain the best possible outcome for the organisation and the individual. In order to make that more likely it is essential that everyone involved is fully aware of the seriousness of the situation. The opening statement should also introduce everyone and outline his or her role in the process. The statement should end by outlining how the interview will be structured and conducted and ensuring that everyone understands the process as outlined.

Statement of the situation

The manager should outline the case. This outline should include a statement about the alleged behaviour of the individual concerned, the date, time and place of the behaviour and should clearly state which rule(s) the behaviour breaches and why.

Individual's reply

At every disciplinary interview it is essential that the individual concerned is given the opportunity to explain their behaviour and to ask any questions of the manager that the individual feels need to be asked.

General questioning and discussion

Remember that even though the manager believes that the investigation has shown that there is sufficient evidence to convene a disciplinary interview, it does not automatically follow that the individual will agree with that view. It also does not necessarily mean that the outcome of the interview will be disciplinary action. Some information may emerge which points the manager to action other than disciplinary action, such as training for the individual, or even the cancellation the disciplinary process against this individual and the opening of another disciplinary investigation of some other individual. The discussion should be open and free enough to allow all of the circumstances to be fully explored and considered.