Disciplinary help

r1c

Hello, I’ve currently been suspended for the past 3 weeks and have my hearing next week. HR emailed me my invitation letter along with the investigation notes and witness statements. HR also cc’d in the person who is chairing the disciplinary. Is this allowed as it gives him time to have a pre-empted decision before the disciplinary? 

Also, when the investigating manager sent the forms off to HR he put it through as ‘failure to follow company procedures and policy, disciplinary procedure, gross misconduct’
when I have received the letter from HR someone on there end has changed the title of the disciplinary and has added more to the title, is this allowed?
thanks! 

Lomast

he will need time to read through all the statements before the meeting and to prepare any questions he feels needs answering. I would say it is normal, it certainly would be where i work.

Not sure about changing the title but i dont see how it would be an issue unless it is inaccurate

Undervalued

r1c said:

Hello, I’ve currently been suspended for the past 3 weeks and have my hearing next week. HR emailed me my invitation letter along with the investigation notes and witness statements. HR also cc’d in the person who is chairing the disciplinary. Is this allowed as it gives him time to have a pre-empted decision before the disciplinary? 

Also, when the investigating manager sent the forms off to HR he put it through as ‘failure to follow company procedures and policy, disciplinary procedure, gross misconduct’
when I have received the letter from HR someone on there end has changed the title of the disciplinary and has added more to the title, is this allowed?
thanks! 

To answer your questions - yes and yes.

This is not a court of law with absolute rules of procedure. Legally an employer simply needs to make a reasonable (layman's) attempt at conducting a fair process.

If, after doing so and hearing both sides of the story, they form a "reasonable belief" that the misconduct took place then they can impose a sanction that a "reasonable employer" might choose.

Don't get too bogged down in fine points of procedure, it won't help. Concentrate on your answers to the specific allegations, if you consider them unfounded. Or, on your mitigation if the allegations are valid.

tacpot12

The Investigating Manager has given a hint that at the root of the matter is that you were not following company procedures. It would be somewhat unusual for this to amount to Gross Misconduct unless it was a repeat offence, or something dangerous that you had had a lot of Health and Safety Training about, e.g. Manual Handling. (Anything that puts colleagues or members of the public at grave risk is more likely to be regarded as Gross Misconduct.) 

So you need to make the case that what you did (in not following procedures) was not so bad as to be regarded as Gross Misconduct. Then, providing this isn't a repeat offence that you have been warned would lead to your dismissal, you can feel reasonably safe that you won't be dismissed and that is the main thing. 

If the company procedures are unclear, or you can get solid evidence that no-one follows the procedures, it will help,  but you need to make the point that you understand why the procedures are there. You might also gain some good will if you volunteer to help them enforce the procedures or improve the procedures.

I wouldn't be too worried about your reputation being damaged. It's probably been impacted already, and it can take a lifetime to change opinions. Accepting responsibility for what you did (or did not do) and making the right noises about changing your behaviour are the things that will see this resolved asap. 

GingerTim

Get on to your union rep.

TELLIT01

I would advise the OP to spend less time trying to find any tiny error in the paperwork or process, and more on putting together their version of what has happened.  Going in to a disciplinary meeting with all guns blazing rarely ends well.

Undervalued

TELLIT01 said:

I would advise the OP to spend less time trying to find any tiny error in the paperwork or process, and more on putting together their version of what has happened.  Going in to a disciplinary meeting with all guns blazing rarely ends well.

Exactly.

Unless the OP has clear evidence that they didn't do whatever they are being accused of doing, they are far better to apologise profusely, admit their mistakes and concentrate on mitigation.

Remember, this is not a criminal matter that must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The employer only needs a "reasonable belief" that the misconduct took place which is, arguably, even less that the civil courts test of "on the balance of probabilities".