Disciplinary: To promote fairness and order in the treatment of casual seasonal workers and for the enforcement of standards of productivity, conduct and behavior we reserve the right under the company’s disciplinary procedures to dismiss any worker who is guilty of serious misconduct or fails to adhere to the company’s rules, regulations and procedures.
Disciplinary stages: Verbal warning, written warning, disciplinary hearing and where appropriate appeal hearing.
Dismissal Without Warning: In some cases you may be summary dismissed if it is established there has been a case of gross misconduct or major breach of duty or conduct. Examples of gross misconduct include damaging company property, use of recreational drugs, falsifying records, breaches of health and safety rules, disregarding appropriate company hygiene rules, unreasonably refusing to work and unreasonable acts of incitement of others not to work.
Appeal
1. You may appeal to the Director of Human Resources against any disciplinary action; the appeal must be in writing and received by the Human Resource Manager within 24 hours of the disciplinary action being taken.
2. You can be accompanied to an appeal hearing by colleague or representative of any Trade Union.
3. The decision at the end of the appeal is final.
4. All appeals are to the Director of Human Resources or other senior member of staff so appointed from time to time.
5. Decisions at the end of an appeal may include:
(a) Support for the original decision;
(b) Retraction of the original decision;
(c) Suspension without pay;
(d) Demotion;
(e) Re-instatement of job.
GRIEVANCE
Policy
The Company recognises the importance of maintaining good working relationships and by encouraging open and honest communication it seeks to achieve a working environment in which problems can be discussed and easily resolved at an early stage. All employees (and in some cases former employees) have the right to seek individual redress for any grievance that relates to their employment. This procedure will be followed to ensure that grievances are dealt with in a fair, open and timely manner.
Procedure
The company’s Disciplinary and Grievance Procedure is summarised below. A copy of the full procedure is available on request.
Stage 1 – Informal approach
Where possible employees should first raise any complaint by discussing it informally with their supervisor or line manager. As an alternative, and if the complaint relates to the supervisor or line manager, the employee can discuss the matter on an informal basis with a more senior employee or a manager. If the complaint can not be resolved informally, the employee should raise it using the formal procedure set out below.
Stage 2 – Formal approach
If the complaint cannot be resolved to an employee’s satisfaction in an informal way, the employee should set out their grievance in writing in as much detail as possible and send it to their manager. The employee will be invited to attend a grievance hearing present that case. The Company may ask the employee to provide more details of the complaint so that it has the opportunity to consider it in advance of the meeting. The employee should bring with any documents or witnesses they wish to rely on to the grievance meeting.
After the grievance meeting, a summary of the complaint, the Company’s decision and the solution(s) proposed (if any) will be prepared. A copy of this document will be provided to all concerned and a copy will be placed on the employee’s personnel file.
Stage 3 - Appeal
If the matter is not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction then they may appeal in writing within 24 hours of the decision complained about. The employee will normally be informed at the time of any such decision as to the person to whom the appeal should be addressed.
The manager (who will be a different manager and uninvolved in the process to that date) hearing the appeal may call such witnesses and consider such documents as he/she feels appropriate. He/she may also adjourn the appeal to conduct any further enquiries that he/she believes are necessary.
The employee making the appeal must make all reasonable efforts to attend the appeal hearing. If the employee fails to attend, the Company may proceed with the hearing in their absence and draw such inferences as are appropriate from the material in its possession and from the absence.
The Company will inform the employee of its final decision immediately after the appeal hearing and will subsequently confirm the decision in writing.
The decision made at the appeal will be final and there is no further right to appeal.
In some circumstances, it may not be appropriate for the grievance procedure to be used. This procedure cannot be used to complain about the imposition of a disciplinary warning, or suspension with or without pay, dismissal or demotion because of your conduct or capability for which there is a separate appeals procedure set out in paragraph 9, or where the Company has notified an employee that it requires them to retire, for which there is a separate procedure.
