Why you need this Disciplinary Policy
When conducting any disciplinary process, businesses should ensure they adopt a procedurally fair process.
Procedural fairness ordinarily incorporates:
- an employee being informed of the performance or conduct allegations against them;
- employees having a reasonable opportunity to respond to those allegations;
- the employee’s response being considered prior to any findings about conduct or underperformance being made; and
- once findings are made, if sanctions are being considered, the employee being notified of and given an opportunity to provide input into any sanctions being considered; and
- finally, the sanctions only being implemented once the employee has had an opportunity to provide feedback on the sanctions.
Businesses that do not follow a fair and reasonable disciplinary process will expose themselves to greater risk of an employee (or ex-employee) bringing a successful claim against the business.
Many businesses sometimes adopt unnecessarily rigid or detailed disciplinary policies that are impractical to comply with on all occasions. This can expose the business to risk because, if the disciplinary process is not followed, claims for unfair dismissal or breach of contractual or other duties can arise.
The Policy is designed to minimise the obligations on the employer and outline the types of sanctions that can arise from a disciplinary process.
Note
Workplace is pleased to present these simplified plain English policies and documents. We have prepared these documents as a result of feedback from subscribers and businesses. Sometimes, businesses and their employees find detailed policies (or documents) unnecessarily complex and, quite frankly, boring.
However, as a result of simplifying these policies/documents, it is important to consider whether the policies (and documents) are suited to your specific business.
You may also wish to consider contacting Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors Pty Limited for specific advice for your business.
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