Monthly Archives: February 2018

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When Disciplinaries and Grievances overlap

When Disciplinaries and Grievances Collide.

A significant challenge for employers to overcome when disciplinaries and grievances collide, is when an employee who’s in trouble tries to save their own skin. It’s easy to be cynical about it, that doesn’t make you a bad employer as it’s a very human response. However, your feelings of cynicism must be kept under your hat as you can’t assume anything.

There are three main things that you need to do: a) keep an open mind. b) you’ve got to deal with the grievance. c) keep up to date records of how seriously you are taking it and be prepared to justify your decisions.

There is no need to postpone the disciplinary process in order to deal with a grievance. In fact, in most cases, it makes sense to deal with them both together, especially if there’s a cross over. If you ignore the grievance, you could be in breach of the ACAS code and that may mean more compensation for an employee should action be taken by them at a later stage. There are 3 things that you could do:

1. Postpone the discussion. A large amount of employers see this as a safe option and it shows the employee you are giving them breathing space and a fair chance.

2. Carry on with the disciplinary. If the grievance is unrelated to the disciplinary, there’s no need to stop it.

3. Deal with them both together. If you are going to do this, make sure you give both the grievance and the disciplinary the time and attention it needs. Ensure that you still follow the correct procedures making sure that the employee knows exactly what is happening, and give them time to prepare before any meeting or hearing.

Perhaps most importantly, make sure that you document everything and retain all the evidence you collect in the investigation process. Don’t be tempted to rush the procedure through and be prepared to push dates back if you need to. Keep on top of things and make sure that the grievance doesn’t hold things up unnecessarily and isn’t being used as a delay tactic.

If you require our help with any form of disciplinary or grievance procedure, contact us. We’d be happy to help.

Social Media – Employers dealing with the Challenge

With such a growth in social media this has created challenges for some employers. Staff may need to use social media during the day as part of their job responsibilities as well as using private social media accounts.

Top things to consider:
1. Different employers will have different approaches to the use of social media. It would be worth having some guidelines set out in a Social Media Policy so that employees are aware of what is acceptable and not acceptable and the consequences of any breach.

2. Have you checked that your information is protected and secured?
Employees build up a list of contacts on LinkedIn and other social media sites. It can be difficult to work out who ‘owns’ these contacts so a clause in the Employment Contract making it clear is useful.

3. Monitoring
Make sure you are clear to employees that you will monitor their data from time to time. Having an Internet, Email and Computer policy setting out the guidelines is very helpful. You should have a separate employee consent form.

4. Data Protection
With the General Data Protection Regulations it is good practice to have a separate employee consent regarding the use and processing of personal data of employees. You could add this to the monitoring consent form.

5. Disciplinary Issues
There has been a growing body of case law in this area, where employees have acted in appropriately and affected the reputation of their employers by their use of social media including their private use. By having the right guidelines in place and explaining them to employees then it is easier to be able to deal with a problem if it occurs.