Welcome back to Workplace Wednesdays.
In every employment relationship, which should be regulated by a contract of employment – there are duties and obligations placed on both parties (the employer and the employee).
One of the main obligations placed on the employer, is to NOT end the employment relationship unfairly or illegally. This means then that if the employer seeks to end the employment relationship, they must follow strict lawful procedures and have cogent reasons for wanting to terminate the employment relationship.
One way an employer may end the relationship with an employee is via dismissal. However, to do that, the employer has to follow very strictly laid out procedures and reasons for that dismissal.
The law of dismissal has been reviewed and new codes have been issued to guide and direct this process. What follows is a very brief introduction with some comments.
The overarching principle of a disciplinary process is that is needs to be “corrective” and not punitive. A dismissal is really the action of last resort when no other action will suffice, and not the first action, usually when the misconduct of the employee is very serious and the employer cannot tolerate that behaviour in the workplace any longer.
It is expected of employers to have a properly written and widely published Disciplinary Procedures and Disciplinary Code, containing the behaviours that it will not tolerate and the sanctions for the misconduct if committed. These are not to be considered “secret documents “and need to be known by all employees. In fact, they must be accessible to all employees in whatever way the employer deems necessary.
Dismissal in such cases can only be considered to be a be a proper sanction if continued employment is rendered intolerable for the employer and they cannot, in good conscience, retain such an employee in their service. For other acts of misconduct, there should be sanctions of warnings and other ways to discourage the employee from ever committing the misconduct again. If that works there will not be a need to revert to a properly convened hearing and a dismissal.
Of course, if the employee commits the misconduct again, then dismissal might be the only route to follow.
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