Introduction

We have clear standards of conduct which all of our employees must meet. These standards are set out in our policies and procedures and your contract of employment, and they are communicated on a day-to-day basis through management instructions. They are also often a matter of common sense.

This Policy sets out the procedure which we will follow if you breach the conduct standards expected of you. We will normally follow this process in disciplinary situations, but we are not obliged to do so (particularly if you are in your probationary period).

This Policy applies to all employees in the business.

This policy does not form part of your contract of employment. We reserve the right to amend or remove this Policy.

Minor conduct issues and informal action

Minor conduct issues will often be addressed through informal discussion with your manager. In such cases, the procedure set out in this Policy will not be followed. We may make a note of the discussion and issue a letter of concern, which will be placed on your personnel file for future reference, but we will not issue a formal warning.

If your conduct does not improve (and in any case, where we believe it appropriate to do so), we will follow the formal process set out below.

Suspension

If there is an allegation of misconduct, then the first thing we will consider is whether there is a need to suspend you from work whilst we follow the disciplinary process. We will generally only do this where the allegation is one of gross misconduct and/or if we have concerns regarding preserving evidence.

Suspension is a neutral act. It is not an indication of our position on any allegation you may face.

If we suspend you:

• You must stay away from work; not visit our premises; and not make contact with staff, clients, suppliers or contractors (unless we authorise this in writing).
• You may contact somebody specifically to ask them to be a witness, or to accompany you at a meeting under this Policy, without asking us first.
• If pre-approved holidays fall during a period of suspension, they will still count as holiday leave and will be deducted from your holiday entitlement as normal.

You will continue to be paid as normal during any period of suspension unless your contract of employment says otherwise.

We will only suspend you for as long as reasonably necessary to allow us to complete our investigation and any formal process which follows it.

We will keep any suspension under review and may lift your suspension at any time if we decide that it is no longer necessary. Likewise, we may decide to suspend you at any point during the disciplinary process even if at the start of the process we did not choose to do so.

Investigation

It is important that all disciplinary allegations are investigated fully before any action is taken.