With the number of Tribunals still on the increase, we thought we’d focus on what you can do to be best prepared for an Employment Tribunal, at every stage of the process, from disciplinary invite letters to briefing witnesses.
Who should hear the disciplinary and appeal?
1. Where an investigation has been carried out have a separate person hear the disciplinary. The Tribunal will look for independence at each stage of the process.
2. Ensure the person hearing the appeal is independent and has not been party to the original decision.
3. Don’t discuss the details or outcome of a disciplinary with any other staff member, at least until the outcome of the appeal has been confirmed. If the decision is overturned at appeal stage, it will leave you red-faced and it could land you in hot water.
Document Management
1. Be specific in disciplinary invite letters: state the allegations and the possible outcomes (particularly dismissal, if that is being considered)
2. Print out, and enclose, the disciplinary policy with all invites to disciplinary hearings.
3. Be specific in outcome of disciplinary letters: state what mitigating factors were offered and, if appropriate, why they weren’t considered satisfactory
4. Ask the employee to agree to the accuracy by initialling the bottom of the handwritten pages.
Tribunal Orders: Don’t Ignore
The Tribunal will send “orders” to instruct both sides on when to disclose the list of documents they will rely upon, to the other side. Don’t ignore any instructions from the Tribunal and avoid turning up to the Tribunal with fresh evidence that the other side hasn’t seen; the Tribunal will not be impressed.
Ensure that the witnesses write their own Witness Statements detailing their involvement in the process. This will ensure that their evidence will be given more naturally and it is a good exercise to remember.
If you have a topic that you’d like us to cover in a future update, please let us know by emailing us at Adviceline@vizualhr.com.
The information contained above is for guidance only and represents our understanding of employment law and employee relations issues as at 9th December 2009. VizualHR cannot be held responsible for any action or inaction taken in reliance upon the contents. Specific advice should be sought on any individual matter.
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