We know that, as a business owner, you are constantly trying to juggle everything at once in order to run your business smoothly and effectively. We also know that a lot of your time is devoted to managing your staff (even if you only have a few employees) and ensuring that they help make your business the success that it is. Throughout this process, you constantly strive to do the right thing; sometimes, however, the odds can seem stacked against you.

Recently, a man from Hertfordshire took his employer, J Varney and Sons Waste Management Ltd to an employment tribunal and was awarded more than £2,400 in compensation. His employers threatened to fire the man after he was photographed in the pub on a day when he had called in sick. While you may think that his employer was justified in giving the man the sack, his employer did not follow the minimum statutory disciplinary procedures and therefore the dismissal was ruled automatically unfair.

Although employers regret having to be in the situation where they have to dismiss an employee, it is sometimes necessary for an employer to do so. If you are in a situation where you may have to dismiss an employee, you can avoid disastrous appearances before employment tribunals, with fines running into the thousands, by being prepared ahead of time with a proper disciplinary procedure in place. Our service can help you in this task. With our service, you can rest assured that you have taken all the necessary steps to comply with the law.

The whole disciplinary process can be rather daunting, but you can greatly simplify the task by following the procedures laid out in our disciplinary letters. The first step is to hold a disciplinary meeting and invite the employee using our Employee disciplinary meeting letter. While in most cases, the employee will continue their employment as they wait for the disciplinary meeting to take place, should the employee’s continued presence in your business involve risk, danger or embarrassment, you could formally suspend them until the disciplinary meeting is held by using our Employee formal suspension letter.

After the disciplinary meeting, you have to formally inform the employee of the outcome of the meeting. If the decision following the meeting is that no disciplinary action be taken, or that an oral, written or final warning be given, you would use our Employee disciplinary meeting outcome letter. If the decision following this meeting is to dismiss, however, you would use our Employee dismissal letter after continued failures, or if it is decided at this meeting that gross misconduct has taken place, Employee dismissal letter for gross misconduct.

It should also be mentioned that your employee has to be given the option of appealing a decision taken at the disciplinary meeting. If the employee does decide to appeal the decision, there are additional steps which you must take. First, you would use our Employee disciplinary appeal hearing letter, inviting them to the appeal hearing and giving them the opportunity to explain his/her conduct. Then, you would follow this meeting up with our "Employee formal appeal hearing outcome letter" to inform them of the outcome if the decision is that no action be taken, or that an oral, written or final warning be given. As before, if the decision is to dismiss, you should use the Employee dismissal letter after continued failures or Employee dismissal letter for gross misconduct, as appropriate.