Management Clinic - Employee procedures: Off the leash

Although this breach of company rules has proved advantageous for your business, you are right in your decision to proceed with some level of disciplinary action against this member of staff. An unacknowledged breach of the rules might lead to a repeat performance and the next time might not be so beneficial for your company.

You need to clarify that the employee knew that their actions would constitute a breach of procedure because punishment of an offence when the employee did not know the proper procedure will be called into question by a tribunal. Normally, company rules and procedures are given to the employee when their employment commences with you; a signed acknowledgment of such procedure would illustrate this.

In order to understand the facts fully, you should conduct a brief investigation, which may mean talking to the employee to understand why it was they did not follow procedure. It is possible that there were extenuating circumstances preventing them from following procedure and you need to establish this.

It might be appropriate simply to have an informal word with the employee, resulting in an informal warning. If they have never done this before and have a clean disciplinary record, a reminder of the procedure and a word to the wise regarding more formal action in the future might be sufficient to deal with the situation. A note can then be made and kept in the employee's personnel file.

Taking action
If, however, this is not the first time that this employee has flouted procedure and you wish to take formal action, you need to inform them in writing that they are required to attend a formal disciplinary hearing. You should set out in the letter the matters of concern, arrange a time and place for the hearing and remind the employee that they have the statutory right to be accompanied by a fellow employee or trade union official at the hearing. You should follow any contractual procedures you have in this regard as well.

At the hearing, you should discuss the breach of procedure and allow the employee to make any representations in their defence.

You can adjourn the hearing while you make a decision on what action to take, or you can let the employee know that they will learn the outcome in the following days.

When deciding on the action you wish to take, you should consider the employee's past disciplinary record, the action that you have taken if similar circumstances have occurred with other employees in the past and anything the employee had to say in the hearing. You may consider some leniency because the deal did prove successful, though you need to keep in mind that the partnership might not have turned out well.

Inform the employee of the sanction you are imposing and allow the right of appeal.

While statutory provisions and the provisions of the ACAS code of practice should be adhered to in this situation, you should always refer to the employee's contract of employment for the specific disciplinary procedure to apply.

Peter Done is managing director at Peninsula