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Final Stage of Disciplinary - Now advised of Mental Health

Daniel

| 0 Posts

2 Jun, 2021 13:39

Good Afternoon,

We are currently going through a disciplinary process with one of our employees for lateness, sickness and general timekeeping. They are in the final stages and we were going to have a Disciplinary meeting yesterday (01/06/2021) to discuss their future with the company. They have emailed us advising they are currently struggling with their Mental Health and will be getting a doctors note. They have also mentioned they were unable to contact us due to phone not working.

The Story So Far:

They have recently been off sick and the last we heard from them (directly in HR/Management) was last Wednesday to advise they would be arriving late to work due to oversleeping. They then advised a collogue they fell down the stairs rushing to get to work so was now off sick and had to go to A&E. Said colleague lives with the employee in question and said they have been fine and been going out. I tried to call them on the Friday as we have not heard from them directly, but went to voicemail. We had prepared a letter to invite this employee to Disciplinary as they were AWOL technically and not followed the Sickness Procedure which they received on Friday. The last we heard directly was that they were going to be in late on Wednesday. It also didnt help the fact this employee had booked off Friday, but due to end of month this was declined (was made aware previously).

1. Is not following a Sickness Procedure count towards Gross Misconduct (even if its on the smaller scale)?

2. Is not coming to work on a rejected holiday date count towards Gross Misconduct?

3. Where do we stand if we were planning to Dismiss this employee, but now she has mentioned Mental Health (with no previous issues when asked before)?

From what I have been reading, employers are bound to be suspicious in regards to rejected holiday vs sickness etc. As it stood Friday, there was going to be 1 final meeting on the following Monday (01/06/2021 yesterday) with the intention of Dismissal based on the outcome of the meeting.

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  • Keith

    | 0 Posts

    3 Jun, 2021 12:38

    Welcome to the communities

    1) Generally, one incident of not following reporting procedures is not GM. What it maybe is the final stage in a process and if the person was on a Final Written Warning for similar it might be enough for a conduct (not gross) dismissal)

    2) Not attending work on a day previously rejected as annual leave might be GM as it shows premeditation and planning. It's a deliberate act. Of course, you still need to investigate and ascertain they were not genuinely ill.

    3) You need to consider their revelation that they are suffering mental health problems alongside all the other evidence you have. In some circumstances this may require a check with Occ health or similar. If the mental health issues are sufficient to be covered under the Equality Act then you have to make reasonable adjustments. But just saying you are suffering is not a get out of jail free card.

    BTW the fact that their house mate is saying they are still going out isn't crucial or conclusive. There are reasons why this might be entirely appropriate.
  • David Perry

    | 0 Posts

    3 Jun, 2021 14:29

    Sounds a bit premature to treat this as any real misconduct until you ascertain whether or not they are indeed suffering from "mental health, stress? or laziness.
  • Daniel

    | 0 Posts

    3 Jun, 2021 14:55

    In reply to David Perry:

    Hi David,

    The point I was trying to get across, was that we had already pretty much made up our mind on the Friday when we sent the letter out. This employee is in the final stage of disciplinary anyway. What I was trying to ascertain was would any of these final instances validate an instant dismissal.

    This has nothing to do with the Mental Health issue, I was just wondering if we are now on full halt mode and would be seen as dismissing someone for Mental Health when they were actually dismissed based on previous Disciplinary matters.

    I was concerned if this was then used against us in regards to the Mental Health. I don't think I mentioned this, but when I spoke to this employee's manager he advised that during a recent review there were no issues brought up in regards to health or medication. From what I have read, a Tribunal wouldn't really look at any cases in regards to an employee of less than 2 years. This employee has only been with us for 5months.