Dismissals and Disciplinary

You may find that as a result of misconduct or poor performance you need to initiate the disciplinary procedure with an employee. Any issues on poor performance is a capability issue, and the ACAS Code of Practice (which now provides guidance in this area) allows for poor performance to be dealt with under a separate capability procedure instead of a disciplinary procedure, provided it adheres to the principles of the Code.

Ill-health is also a capability issue and should you consider taking action against an employee for ill-health reasons, particularly dismissal, it would therefore be strongly advisable to follow the general principles of fairness contained in the ACAS Code of Practice, even where the principal reason for the dismissal is ill-health. Please also refer to the section 'Sickness Issues.'

Disciplinary action is anything up to and including dismissal. Again, the ACAS Code of Practice sets out the steps which you as an Employer should take in the lead up to dismissal, as an employee should rarely be dismissed for a first offence, unless it amounts to gross misconduct. Action taken by you can be anything from oral or verbal warnings as the first stage of a disciplinary process, or may proceed straight to a written warning as the first action under a formal procedure.

Verbal warnings do not need to form part of a formal process, but if they are included in your disciplinary procedure, then the procedure leading up to giving a verbal warning would need to comply with the Code of Practice. However, any other action taken for disciplinary purposes, e.g. suspension without pay or demotion, would be covered by the ACAS Code of Practice.

It is often the case that in commencing disciplinary action against an employee, you may find that almost immediately they will get signed off with Work Related Stress or even raise a grievance against you. We offer practical advice in these situations as this can often be extremely difficult and sometimes destructive to your business and moral of other employees.