Tip of the Week | How to determine whether a matter is a clear conduct and therefore disciplinary issue?

In our previous tip of the week we stated that “anything relating to the behaviour of the employee such as where a known rule has been transgressed by the employee would be dealt with as a disciplinary matter.” There are clear breaches of rules, procedures and the like which are pretty easy to for managers to establish such as in the instance of breaches by employees of company value systems, or financial procedures relating to the making of claims for reimbursements of expenses or some or other procedure relating to the occupational health and safety domain such as where an employee breaches the rule that one should not smoke next to containers of flammable liquids. Then there are those breaches which are more complex to decide on whether they are misconduct issues where one is confronted with some element of the work performance of the employee such as where the employee seems to have breached an expected form of control or a requirement to report or in stances where an employee is held to be incompatible with the organisation. In the first instance, relating to the controls and reporting the standard test would be does the employee have adequate training and knowledge regarding the level and nature of controlling and reporting needed and have these requirements been suitably communicated to them. If the answer is affirmative, one would then regard the matter to be a matter of misconduct and probably charge the employee on the basis of “dereliction of duties and/or negligence” rather than handling the matter as a capacity issue. In the second instance, the real test would be the reason the employee is held to be incompatible if the origin and source is that elements of the conduct have resulted in the employee being incompatible, then the matter would be a matter of the disciplinary process being pursued.

People Management Pointers

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   Investigate thoroughly the origin of the misdemeanour or area of discontent before sending out any correspondence relating to an imminent counselling or disciplinary hearing notice to the employee;
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 Do a thorough investigation gathering all forms of available proof and evidence;
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 Then determine whether the misdemeanour relates to a clear breach of a rule or whether relating to some element of the execution of the job requirements or standards of performance;
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   Seek out the advice of an employee relations practitioner or your own ER/HR Manager

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