This policy applies to all employees employed by Compliance Group Limited.
CGL expects all employees to maintain certain minimum standards of behaviour in their work role, behaviour and conduct. This policy exists to make clear to all employees what action will follow where an employee’s behaviour or conduct falls below those standards expected of all CGL colleagues. Issues relating to poor performance will be managed in line with the Capability Policy and Procedure.
This policy applies to all Compliance Group colleagues across all sites, subsidiaries and field-based colleagues. This policy does not form part of your contract of employment and the Company may amend or depart from it without your consent at any time.
It is vital to our business success that you maintain standards of behaviour within your role and of behaviour and conduct in your day-to-day dealings with clients, colleagues, suppliers and the public. The Disciplinary Policy and Procedure is intended to make it clear where you have fallen short of the standards which the Company expect you to maintain and is designed to help you perform in a manner conducive to achieving business goals. The Disciplinary Policy and Procedure is to be corrective rather than punitive, with the aim of helping you to reach and/or maintain the required standard of behaviour and conduct.
Minor conduct issues can often be resolved informally between you and your Line Manager. These discussions should be held in private and without undue delay whenever there is cause for concern. Where appropriate, a note of any such informal discussions may be placed on your personnel file but will be ignored for the purposes of any future capability hearings.
In some cases, an informal verbal warning may be given, which will not form part of your disciplinary records.
Formal steps will be taken under this procedure if the matter is not resolved, or if informal discussion is not appropriate (for example, because of the seriousness of the allegation). You will not normally be dismissed for a first act of misconduct, unless we decide it amounts to gross misconduct or you have not yet completed your probationary period.
If you have difficulty at any stage of the procedure because of a disability, you should discuss the situation with a member of the HR Department as soon as possible.
Misconduct
Below is an indication of offences which will constitute misconduct. The list is not exhaustive.
Gross Misconduct
Gross misconduct is misconduct of such a serious, fundamental nature that it breaches the contractual relationship between you and the Company.
The Company reserves the right to terminate your contract without any notice if it has reasonable grounds to believe that: –
you are guilty of dishonesty, gross negligence, willful neglect of duty, or have committed any other serious breach of your contract.
or
you act in any matter (whether in the course of your duties, or otherwise), which is likely to bring you, the Company, or any Associated Company into disrepute or prejudice the interests of the Company or any Associated Company.
The Company shall have the right to suspend you on full pay and benefits pending any investigation into potential dishonesty, gross misconduct, or other circumstances which (if proved) would entitle the Company to dismiss you without notice.
Below is an indication of offences which will constitute gross misconduct. This list is not exhaustive.
This procedure is used to deal with misconduct. It does not apply to cases involving genuine sickness absence, proposed redundancies or poor performance. In those cases, reference should be made to the appropriate policy or procedure.
Minor conduct issues can often be resolved informally between you and your Line Manager. These discussions should be held in private and without undue delay whenever there is cause for concern.
Where appropriate, a note of any such informal discussions may be placed on your personnel file but will be ignored for the purposes of any future capability hearings. In some cases, an informal verbal warning may be given, which will not form part of your disciplinary records.
Formal steps will be taken under this procedure if the matter is not resolved, or if informal discussion is not appropriate (for example, because of the seriousness of the allegation).
You will not normally be dismissed for a first act of misconduct, unless we decide it amounts to gross misconduct or you have not yet completed your probationary period.
If you have difficulty at any stage of the procedure because of a disability, you should discuss the situation with a member of the HR Department as soon as possible.
Guidance on conducting disciplinary hearings and investigations is available from your Manager. Department Managers and Supervisors should seek advice before starting any disciplinary proceedings. As stated above, the nature and extent of the investigation will depend on the seriousness of the matter and the procedure will differ from case to case.
Department Managers and Supervisors should seek advice before starting any disciplinary proceedings. As stated above, the nature and extent of the investigation will depend on the seriousness of the matter and the procedure will differ from case to case.
At the disciplinary hearing we will go through the allegations against you and the evidence that has been gathered. You will be able to respond and present any evidence of your own. Your companion may make representations to us and ask questions, but should not answer questions on your behalf. You may confer privately with your companion at any time during the hearing.
You may ask relevant witnesses to appear at the hearing, provided you give us sufficient advance notice to arrange their attendance. You will be given the opportunity to respond to any information given by a witness.
We may adjourn the disciplinary hearing if we need to carry out any further investigations such as re-interviewing witnesses in the light of any new points you have raised at the hearing. You will be given a reasonable opportunity to consider any new information obtained before the hearing is reconvened.
Department Managers/ Supervisors are expected to make you aware of any shortcomings in your conduct and behaviour and provide support for the corrective action to be taken. At every stage you must understand what stage of the procedure you are in.
In cases of persistent poor behaviour and certain types of misconduct, the following disciplinary procedure will be invoked in line with the principles described above
Our aim is to deal with disciplinary matters sensitively and with due respect for the privacy of any individuals involved. All employees must treat as confidential any information communicated to them in connection with an investigation or disciplinary matter.
You, and anyone accompanying you (including witnesses), must not make electronic recordings of any meetings or hearings conducted under this procedure.
You will normally be told the names of any witnesses whose evidence is relevant to disciplinary proceedings against you, unless we believe that a witness’s identity should remain confidential.
The purpose of an investigation is for us to establish a fair and balanced view of the facts relating to any disciplinary allegations against you, before deciding whether to invoke the disciplinary procedure. The amount of investigation required will depend on the nature of the allegations and will vary from case to case. It may involve interviewing and taking statements from you and any witnesses, and/or reviewing relevant documents.
Investigative interviews are solely for the purpose of fact finding and no decision on disciplinary action will be taken until after a disciplinary hearing has been held.
You must co-operate fully and promptly in any investigation. This will include informing us of the names of any relevant witnesses, disclosing any relevant documents to us and attending investigative interviews if required.
If it is decided that there is no case to answer then you will be informed of this fact either verbally or in writing. You will be expected to return to work at the agreed date and time. This will end the process.
Where your conduct is the subject of a criminal investigation, charge or conviction we will investigate the facts before deciding whether to take formal disciplinary action.
We will not usually wait for the outcome of any prosecution before deciding what action, if any, to take. Where you are unable or have been advised not to attend a disciplinary hearing or say anything about a pending criminal matter, we may have to take a decision based on the available evidence.
A criminal investigation, charge or conviction relating to conduct outside work may be treated as a disciplinary matter if we consider that it is relevant to your employment.
If you are incarcerated the business will deem this to be frustration of contract and your employment may be terminated with notice.
In some circumstances we may need to suspend you from work. The suspension will be for no longer than is necessary to investigate the allegations and we will confirm the arrangements to you in writing. While suspended you should not visit our premises or contact any of our clients, customers, suppliers, contractors or staff, unless you have been authorised to do so by your Manager.
Suspension of this kind is not a disciplinary penalty and does not imply that any decision has already been made about the allegations.
Should you fail to co-operate at any time with the investigatory process, for example by failing to attend any meeting, without good reason then the Company reserves the right to treat this as unauthorised absence, and this may result in pay being withheld until such time as you attend any rearranged meeting.
The usual penalties for misconduct are set out below. No penalty should be imposed without a thorough investigation and hearing. We reserve the right to vary the disciplinary process in line with your length of service. We aim to treat all employees fairly and consistently, and a penalty imposed on another employee for similar misconduct will usually be considered but should not be treated as a precedent. Each case will be assessed on its own merits.
Short term Dismissal
The company reserves the right to modify the disciplinary process including sanctions, inline with a colleagues length of service.
Written Warning.
If, following an investigation, the required improvement does not take place or a further offence of the same or a different nature takes place, or if any offence is considered to be of a serious nature a written warning will be given to you by the Manager and will specify.
The warning will record the facts and state the elements outlined in section Stage 1 above. A copy will be sent to you, and, where involved, your representative.
Final Written Warning
If following an investigation, there is still no improvement or if the offence is serious enough to warrant it, you will be given a final written warning. This will be issued by the Manager.
The warning will record the facts and state the elements outlined in the section above. A copy will be put on your personal file, and where involved, your representative.
Written warnings will set out the nature of the misconduct, the change in behaviour required, the period for which the warning will remain active, and the likely consequences of further misconduct in that active period.
A first written warning will usually remain active for six months and a final written warning will usually remain active for 12 months. In exceptional cases verging on gross misconduct, a final written warning may state that it will remain active indefinitely. Your conduct may be reviewed at the end of a warning’s active period and if it has not improved sufficiently, we may decide to extend the active period.
After the active period, the warning will remain permanently on your personnel file but will be disregarded in deciding the outcome of future disciplinary proceedings.
Dismissal
If, following an investigation, conduct or behaviour is still unsatisfactory and you fail to reach the prescribed standards, dismissal will normally result. Dismissal may also result where an offence is serious enough to warrant it. Only the appropriate Manager can make the decision to dismiss.
The decision will be communicated to you by the Manager. You will be provided with a written statement of the reasons for the dismissal and the date from which the dismissal is effective.
Alternatives to dismissal
In some cases we may at our discretion consider alternatives to dismissal. These may be authorised and will usually be accompanied by a final written warning.
Examples include:-
If you feel that disciplinary action taken against you is wrong or unjust you should appeal in writing, stating your full grounds of appeal, within five days of the date on which you were informed of the decision.
If you are appealing against dismissal, the date on which dismissal takes effect will not be delayed pending the outcome of the appeal. However, if your appeal is successful, you will be reinstated with no loss of continuity or pay.
If you raise any new matters in your appeal, we may need to carry out further investigation. If any new information comes to light, we will provide you with a summary including, where appropriate, copies of additional relevant documents and witness statements. You will have a reasonable opportunity to consider this information before the hearing.
We will give you written notice of the date, time, and place of the appeal hearing. This will normally be two to seven days after you receive the written notice.
The appeal hearing may be a complete re-hearing of the matter, or it may be a review of the fairness of the original decision in the light of the procedure that was followed and any new information that may have come to light. This will be at our discretion depending on the circumstances of your case. In any event the appeal will be dealt with as impartially as possible.
Where possible, the appeal hearing will be conducted impartially by a more senior manager who has not been previously involved in the case.
You may bring a companion with you to the appeal hearing We may adjourn the appeal hearing if we need to carry out any further investigations in the light of any new points you have raised at the hearing. You will be given a reasonable opportunity to consider any new information obtained before the hearing is reconvened.
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