Disciplinaries

lynzpower

Just a quick one.

My OH has been told he is to have a disciplinary tomorrow.

the top & bottom of what happened was that he works in a store that also has a warehouse ( down the road)

Someone put in a big order, and one piece of the order was ou8t of stock in both shop & warehouse, so OH put a note on the system to say the first one that came in needs to be shipped to this customer.

One came into the shop ( return) and his colleague sent it out to the customer. the next day the warehouse sent out one as well. someone in thier wisdom decided to cancel both orders and get them back from the courier.

Now, the warehouse sent one out again to the customer, they were saying that they were going to take the cost of the courier out of OHS wages ( id say illegal deduictions)nothing in his ( one side of A4 ) contract about such deductions. Now they are saying he has to have a disciplinary.

Advice needed and urgently please :mad:

cazziebo

I'd love to help Lynz but I don't see what he has done wrong from what you've said.

I think the meeting tomorrow must be an investigative meeting (unless that's already happened). What exactly is the contravention that is resulting in a disciplinary?

lynzpower

exacrly cazzie!

basically someones cocked up, theyve paid the courier, then cancelled, then the dcosts have to come from somewhere, so lets blame my OH who has done nothing wrong. It was someone else !!!! up?

I dont tihnk it is an investigative meeting, they have TOLD him he is getting a disciplinary tomorrow?

Is this legal? If not, ( and i suspect not) what can be done to challenge it?

What bothers me is that they will give him a disc on his record and it will make it harder to get another job

lynzpower

Incidentally cazzie, when you say contravention, what do you mean- he has never had any training or anything , and in fact what they said to him about this incident was " its never happened before , so no one knew how to deal with it"

irisheyes69

Hi there. In the first instance there should be an investigatory meeting to establish the reason why the error occured. If it is established that the the member of staff was negligent in their work then perhaps it would move onto disciplinary and even so, it should not be for more than a verbal warning or 1st written warning. If what you're saying is true, and this person has now had any training to mention, then he has a strong case against the company. Also, his future employment will not be tarnished even if it goes to disciplinary. These things are removed from Personnel Files after the time has expired i.e. 6 months written warning, at end of six months he has a clean slate again and this information cannot be passed to any future employers. If however he does move to another firm and he has a disciplinary/caution etc. on file then they can give this information to a new employer along the lines of 'a matter of concern was raised' etc. Hope this helps. Regards

ohreally

ACAS have a code of pracice which should be adopted, this includes informing your oh, in writing (a weeks notice is normal) that he is invited to attend a disciplinary hearing, the purpose of that hearing,supply him or his representative with any evidence management intend to use and inform him of his right to be accompanied by a rep or companion.The letter should also inform him of the possible sanctions being considered e.g. "up to and including dismissal". In terms of the "offense", in the absense of clear and established protocols, factor in lack of supervisory mechanisms and no clear indication of who is responsible for follow up monitoring, i'm unclear on what grounds they wish to progress on. At worse, this is a training issue, not only for your OH but for everyone involved in the department.Does your OH have freedom to act as he sees fit or must he follow instruction from his mangers....if the later then they must also be in the firing line or is it a case of do as i say and not as i do?(i'm at work at the moment, if you wish further comment i'll reply this evening)
Edit: ACAS CoP http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/9/5/CP01_1.pdf

lynzpower

well they havent given him a weeks notice. they told him today, ( verbal) not written.

Does he have to attend, if he attends and they "dish out " the disciplinary, then can he refuse it? or what?

Ive jsut been reading those ACAS Cop,s cheers oh really.

I need to speakto him later to find out whats going on properly, and will come back here later.

cazziebo

lynzpower wrote: »

Incidentally cazzie, when you say contravention, what do you mean- he has never had any training or anything , and in fact what they said to him about this incident was " its never happened before , so no one knew how to deal with it"

For it to result in disciplinary then it would have to be a contravention against a policy or process. If there is no policy or process, and as you say above, hadn't happened before, then it can't be a disciplinary. You can't be disciplined unless you're knowingly in the wrong!

See ohreally's post. The company HAVE to follow very strict procedures - long gone are the days when companies could make it up as they went along. If the company don't follow procedures then the disciplinary can't stand.

lynzpower

Thanks, this is great info.

i was thinking that surely this would be the case, but no real experience.

If they DO "make it up as they go along" which I suspect they might, then does he have any grouds for it being "removed"

beverleyhills

He should ask for a copy of the Company's Disciplinary Precedure.

lynzpower

beverleyhills wrote: »

He should ask for a copy of the Company's Disciplinary Precedure.

Aha! By law they have to give it to him dont they?

If they dont have one ( which anything is possible, it is only a relitavely small firm) then does it narturally follow that they cant discipline him?