Fair and effective discipline – from warnings to chairing watertight dismissals

• General principles of discipline
• Conducting a fair disciplinary enquiry and examining employer/employee rights
• The effect of criminal proceedings on disciplinary action
• Practical: The code of good practice on misconduct including incapacity, Schedule 8 of the Labour Relations Act.

The workshop will cover

Section One – Fair and effective discipline

• Introduction to effective discipline
• Management and the need to discipline
• Management and the need to maintain discipline (Worksheet A)
• Management and the need to maintain discipline (Worksheet B)
• Effect of these developments in the early 1980s on the manager’s right to discipline
• What effect does the LRA (1995) have on discipline and dismissals?
• Unfair dismissals
• Unfair dismissal, Automatically unfair dismissal and fair dismissal (Worksheet C)
• Employee duties to a company (Worksheet D)
• Automatically unfair dismissals
• Employee duties to a company
• Discipline guidelines
• Issuing of warnings (Worksheet E)

Section Two – Conducting a fair disciplinary enquiry

• How to conduct a fair disciplinary enquiry
• Fairness: General principles
• Overview: procedural and substantive fairness
• The disciplinary enquiry: preliminary investigation to collect evidence
• The disciplinary enquiry
• The disciplinary enquiry: notification
• The disciplinary enquiry: formulating the charge
• The disciplinary enquiry: employee rights
• Checklist for the chairperson of a disciplinary enquiry (example)
• How to conduct a disciplinary enquiry (example)
• The key roles and characteristics of participants at a disciplinary enquiry (Worksheet F)
• Roles and characteristics of participants at a disciplinary enquiry
• The disciplinary enquiry: closing statements
• The finding: verdict and penalty (Worksheet G)
• Testing fairness: group discussion (Worksheet H)
• The finding: verdict
• The finding: mitigation
• The finding: penalty
• Testing fairness
• Appeal procedure
• Fair enquiry guidelines
• Summary: fair enquiry guidelines

Section Three – effect of criminal proceedings on disciplinary action

• Criminal proceedings and disciplinary enquiries
• Disciplinary enquiry: notification
• Acquittals: effect on dismissal
• Acquittals: effect on dismissal – case study (Worksheet I)
• Criminal actions: management guidelines
• Exceptions: inability to hold a disciplinary enquiry
• Criminal acquittals: management response

Section Four – The Code of Good Practice: Dismissals

• Introduction
• Fair reasons for dismissal
• Procedures
• Suggested procedure for holding a disciplinary investigation [Item 4(1) of the code]
• Dismissals and industrial action
• Poor work performance
• Ill health or injury