Category Archives: Employment Rights

Employment tribunal claim tips

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Tips for employees on employment tribunal claims

Evidence: Kept an accurate record of all emails, conversations and minutes of meetings. Produce a time diary of events with as much detail as possible.

Mitigation: If you leave your employment you are under a duty to mitigate your losses. Keep a record of all efforts made to seek new employment including, job applications and interviews.

Witnesses: A case will ultimately turn on the evidence presented to the Tribunal. If witnesses can be obtained to support any part of your case then you should speak to them at an early stage.

Clarity: Be as clear and concise as possible in relation to events. An employment tribunal will make a decision based on the evidence presented to them. Avoid waffle and unnecessary information. The key is to show that you have a clear recollection of events and that your case is supported by the evidence.

Time Limits: Generally speaking you have 3 months from the date of the incident or in the case of dismissal 3 months from the dismissal to lodge a claim with the employment tribunal. Failure to do so may leave you without recourse.

Diligence: Your representative will require as much information from you as possible throughout the claim. They are reliant on your input in relation to the facts. You must be as thorough as possible and provide detailed comments in relation to all of the evidence provided by the other side.

Advice: Seek advice at an early stage. The ET1 form that you will submit for your claim will set the basis of your claim. It needs to include all heads of claim and potential actions. It is important that you have a firm grip on the issues involved from the outset as this will ultimately determine the manner in which your case runs and outcome.

Costs: Consider at an early stage how you will fund your case to hearing. It is likely that you will need legal representation from the outset and a barrister to represent you at the hearing. That will not be cheap. You should check if you have any valid insurance policies covering legal expenses, such as home insurance. Failing which you should consider alternate means to fund your case and ensure that funds are available up until the hearing. It is unlikely that you will obtain legal aid for an employment case.

Disciplinary hearings

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Disciplinary Hearing

Introduction

Disciplinary actions are those which are taken by the employer against the employee on occasions where there has been a failure to comply with disciplinary rules within the working environment. To ensure a business remains well-run, it is vital to establish rules and procedures for the employees to abide by, which in turn would maintain their attendance, performance, treatment of other staff, etc. If an employer feels there has been a violation of the set out rules, a disciplinary hearing will be conducted whereby the employee may either be warned or dismissed if they are at fault.

Nonetheless, it is the employer’s duty to have these disciplinary principles set out in writing and furthermore, it is the employer’s utmost responsibility to carry out thorough investigations before a disciplinary hearing whereby the employee needs to have been made aware of the rules and the consequences of breaching them beforehand. Where an employee’s conduct is doubtful, the employer should first instigate an informal disciplinary action whereby a verbal warning may be given to the employee with a probation period to improve. Once this opportunity passes with no development on the employee’s behalf, a formal disciplinary hearing would be in order.

Forms of Misconduct

There are two forms of misconduct that could arise; minor acts of misconduct or gross misconduct, for which disciplinary procedures must be followed. A minor act of misconduct may consist of actions such as but not limited to:

  • Bad time-keeping
  • Poor attendance
  • Damage to employer’s property
  • Use of offensive language
  • Smoking in non-permitted areas

The employer, in such a case, would reserve the right to serve an oral warning on first instance, followed by a first and final written warning and ultimately, a dismissal.

The second category of gross misconduct consisting of examples of physical assault, fraud, sexual or racial harassment, etc. calls for a more serious disciplinary action of possibly an immediate dismissal without notice or payment.

In both the above cases, it would be advisable for the employer to have prepared a non-exhaustive list of the possible offences to ensure that their employees are fully aware of such areas of misconduct, attentively to avoid any subsequent dispute.

Holding a Formal Disciplinary Hearing

When holding a formal disciplinary hearing, the below needs to be complied with.

  1. The reasons for the hearing on the agenda and methods of conducting the hearing will be explained.
  2. The nature of the complaint will be stated along with presentation of any evidence. Unfair dismissal of an employee is not legally permitted, therefore when holding a disciplinary hearing, any and all evidence against a particular employee must be presented to them at this stage with the opportunity to allow them to justify themselves against the allegations.
  3. Any special circumstances which arise will be recorded.
  4. The discussion will be summarized to conclude the hearing along with placing emphasis on areas that would require any further investigation.

In order to ensure there is a fair hearing the employee should be provided with a written notice of the complaint in advance thus giving the employee sufficient time to prepare and present their case on the day of the hearing. An employee is rightfully allowed to be accompanied by an appointed fellow employee or a union representative at the formal hearing. During the process of the hearing, if the employee presents a reasonable defence for their conduct, the hearing will be discontinued with no further action. The hearing would also be adjourned if the employee is found in a distressful state or if further investigations would need to be carried out to present a just case.

Outcomes of a Disciplinary Hearing

The overall outcomes of a disciplinary hearing could be as follows:

  • Dropping the mater
  • Deliver another written warning – first or final
  • Settle to provision of counselling or further training
  • Apply a disciplinary penalty of dismissal