This reads very much like an Exam or assignment question. It is always useful to do a bit of your own research and provide your initial thoughts if possible

Welcome to the community!

The smoking student bit is a red herring.  You cannot, by law, smoke inside a premises, whether you are sitting on top of flammable material on sat on top of solid concrete (which is of course non flammable.

For a moment, forget the law.  How would you deal with this if you were the HR person?

David

In reply to David Perry:

Hi

Thank you. Apologies in advance about the 'quality' of the below answer. This is part of my professional development - I am a HR Admin and being given the opportunity to work on some scenarios. Just trying to work my head around.

I would start with proposing an investigation to the matter, an investigation manager - external to the events - would need to be appointed to conduct the meetings with the parties involved, to hear the turn of events and establish the facts - perhaps check CCTV as well as evidence. Based on the investigation's statements (the member of staff and the student involved) the investigation manager would need to decide about the investigation outcome if the lecturer is found admissible of 1)losing his temper 2)leaving the class unattended there will be a disciplinary action based on transgression of health and safely regulations (I do not think that lecturer should leave the class unattended) and for mistreating a student in class.
However, I think there are few other issues that should be looked at for example: the member of staff is doing double of his teaching hours due to staff shortage. His contract should probably be checked - there should a contractual limit on the amount of extra hours delivery staff can teach for a length of time that should not be overcome. I would query if the additional hours the member of staff is currently doing has been discussed with him and agreed formally. There should be a procedure in Colleges for additional hours requests and payment. If agreed formally and approved for payment, why the employee has not been paid? if not agreed, college procedures have not been properly followed and the employee line manager should be asked for the reason.
Another issue is the staff shortage. I understand sometimes vacancies are difficult to be filled as per labour market storage or the inability to find the right candidate for the position in a short timeframe, however, in order to avoid pressure on the department or one staff member, I think temp cover could be provided?
The member of staff seems to have also personal issue, perhaps can be suggested support such as EAP, counselling, stress risk assessment?

In reply to Francesca:

OK Francesca = Thats quite a good answer!!

Just a couple of comments/questions:-

1. You definitely need to know why this has happened in terms of the teacher working over and above the hours he/she is allowed to work. And of course why have they not been paid.

2. If we assume the reason he is struggling with preparation because he/she doesn't have enough time to do so then that too needs looking into.

3. The person doing the investigation does not normally decide what action to take. After the fact finding investigation it is up to the school to decide whether disciplinary action it is to be taken against the teacher or not.

4. You've not mentioned anything about the pupil? What do you do about a pupil smoking inside the building??

5. Would you consider a teacher losing his temper with a pupil a disciplinary matter? What would you want to know?

In reply to David Perry:

Thank you David. Noted point 3.
Point 4 - This should be against student regulations and code of behaviour and can be treated under student disciplinary procedure?
Point 5 - It really depends on what happened. Has the teacher been shouting or throws a spanner at them? or simplify was assertive? I guess would be important to find out, perhaps with other learners in the class, what happened. If it is just the case of being assertive with the learner about a task or prompting the learner to pay attention I would not consider this a disciplinary matter, but if the teacher throws a spanner at them, I think can be a disciplinary matter as the pupil could be hurt and the college environment unsafe for them?

In reply to Francesca:

Francesca, if you were the investigating officer, what would your questions be and what documents could be useful?

In reply to Francesca:

I agree with Dave - that is actually a really strong answer :)

In reply to Francesca:

You have staff/teachers who could - or might throw a spanner at a pupil? Eeeeks!! What subject are they teaching?



Re point 4. I'd have no hesitation in dealing very strictly with the person smoking in the school. As I said it is illegal in the UK to smoke inside almost every building. It doesn't matter if it is not prohibited in some list of student rules, violations or regulations.  What would you do if he decided to break a window? Ignorance is no defence against the law.  And you don't need 100% proof.   You just need to decide whether he did, or didn't on the balance of probabilities.   I'd start off by simply asking the pupil if he was smoking.. I wouldn't ask him/her directly as the obvious answer from them would likely be, "No". I'd simply say, "I've been told you were smoking in the school", and go from there.  

Point 5. Yes, it depends on what they actually said.