Can employer discipline employee for standard of driving off site

born_again

Colleague informed me that they had left work the previous night following a couple of cars out of the main gate which they claimed then raced each other through the local village at high speed. Neither of the two cars were company cars nor had any visible affiliation with the business.

My colleague then told me that they had taken the registrations of both cars, then the next day had searched the staff car parks (is a very large site) to find the two cars, then report their standard of driving via a near miss form to the relevant managers in the local site departments.

Perhaps said people should be thankful that colleague decided, not to report to police, instead of just who they worked for.

Undervalued

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890478#Comment_81890478

Really?

I am sorry but it comes over more that you have a fairly fixed opinion and are arguing with anybody who expresses a different view.

The short answer is that an employer can take action if the employee's behaviour might bring the company into disrepute, even if it is out of working hours and / or off site.

Also, an employer does not need "proof", only a "reasonable belief" of misconduct, following a reasonably fair layman's attempt at an investigation.

Jude57

Just to point out that it's not hearsay. The allegation was made by a person who witnessed the incident and could, had an accident resulted, have been called to give evidence under oath in a criminal case or worse, to the Coroner. In such circumstances, the Judge, jury or Coroner must decide whether the witness is reliable (i.e. telling the truth) and reach a verdict accordingly. And as @Undervalued has explained, the employer doesn't need to have definitive proof that any criminality was involved (though it certainly sounds as though it was) merely a reasonable belief that the employees' actions were unacceptable and with the potential to bring the employer's name into disrepute. I'd argue that, in the absence of any prior known antagonism between the witness and the employees racing, the employer could be reasonably expected to treat the allegation seriously. As for proof, if you weren't personally involved, can you be certain that the person making the allegation doesn't have dashcam footage of the incident?

monkey-fingers

This is absolutely 100% relevant to me.

I live in an area that has a significant "works" on the edge of my village. In fact, I won't tell you what it actually is, because it'll identify where I live, because it's well known around the country.

There have been significant complaints by the villagers to the main company. They are very aware that they are our neighbours and they even have an employee whose full-time job it is to be a community rep (they often sit in our parish council offices - this is the scale of it!)

One of their car parks is on the edge of the village and at "kicking out time", it's chaos on the road from them to the main road.

So employees started cutting through the village. Not just cutting through, but speeding through the village.

A broadcast was sent round (and is now done regularly) reminding people that they are not to exit via our village. They regularly patrol this, as do some locals who then report back the registration plates. Apparently, they can be disciplined.

They've also been sending their own people out to do the community speedwatch thing. If a speeding car is on their system, they're banned from the car park for a month and have to make alternative arrangements.

As an aside, I used to work on a huge restricted site and we had similar rules on site. Speeding (over 20mph) was 1 week parking ban. Mobile phone was 1 month. 2 speed tickets was 1 month too. Bear in mind it was a mile from the gate to our office, that wasn't something you wanted to get done for in the winter.

monkey-fingers

- Perhaps said people should be thankful that colleague decided, not to report to police, instead of just who they worked for.

This too. If they had dash cam footage, this will almost certainly end up in court - the Police love the public doing their job for them.

LightFlare

Bringing negative attention to the company is a far lower bar than any accusations of criminality.

Depending on the exact nature of the action by the company, I can’t see they have done anything wrong

kinger101

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890478#Comment_81890478

Why? Does the employer entertain viewpoints from random people on the internet?