An unwelcome and unwanted trip through a disciplinary process

Travel agent Henk felt he was doing the right thing when he found the courage to raise a formal complaint against his boss – but the response from his employer left him shocked and fearful.

After raising a grievance against his manager for bullying, the response to it took Henk completely by surprise.

The grievance was heard, investigated by the employer, and rejected. A subsequent grievance appeal proved unsuccessful and was also rejected.

When Henk, who had worked for his employer for just under three years, contacted our Employee Support Centre, he explained what happened next.

Henk said his employer found his grievance allegations to be false. This then led to him being invited to a disciplinary hearing to face allegations of making malicious allegations found to be without any factual basis against a colleague.

Our representative reviewed Henk’s grievance and the outcome to it, and felt the finding and assessment of it was wrong and grossly unfair. As a result he believed the disciplinary action being taken against Henk was unreasonable and unjustified.

While, admittedly, there was not enough evidence to support every allegation made by Henk against his manager, he did provide enough evidence to demonstrate that overall he had a legitimate complaint.

Our representative believed that in some instances there was actually enough evidence to support that on the balance of probabilities, the burden of proof required in employment matters, some incidents occurred as alleged by Henk.

Being invited to a disciplinary hearing with the threat of dismissal as a potential outcome would be a worry for any employee. It certainly was for Henk - and for good reason.

He was sacked from his previous job before submitting a successful disciplinary appeal, which found that the decision amounted to an unfair dismissal.

Henk was reinstated before leaving that job when he was eventually ready to do so.

He was understandably fearful to find himself facing dismissal again, and devastated by the response to his grievance.

Henk made it clear  to our representative that he wanted to leave the job. His preference was to reach a settlement agreement to allow him to do so.

Ahead of the disciplinary hearing our representatives requested from the employer all of the evidence it had gathered, used and considered in its decision to reject Henk’s grievance, and to justify the finding that his grievance allegations were false and malicious.

The information requested included witness statements from any employees spoken to as part of the grievance investigation. It was asserted Henk was entitled to the information.

The employer refused to provide the requested information. This was despite an extensive exchange of email correspondence making the case that it should do so.

Our representative presented the emails at the disciplinary hearing. This was in support of his argument the process and action being taken against Henk was unfair, and in order to demonstrate there was no tangible evidence to substantiate the allegations against him.

In addition, it was said that Henk provided names of witnesses to some incidents and no evidence had been produced to show they were ever spoken to in order to establish if there was evidence to support allegations he made against his manager.

Our representative was also strong in his assertion that even if the allegations were considered unfounded, the evidence presented in support of the grievance showed Henk had not acted with any malice.

It was a robust presentation by our representative in support of Henk’s case during which he also highlighted some evidence in the form of emails and one-to-one meeting notes to highlight Henk had valid complaints.

Henk was asked a number of questions by the disciplinary hearing chair after which our representative initiated an off the record discussion about a settlement.

The discussion continued after the hearing and an agreement was eventually reached, which included it being made clear Henk had been cleared of the allegations