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Browse frequently asked questions and answers on key HR issues. Navigate by topic or key word search. View latest additions or suggest a question to the XpertHR editorial team.
What is the purpose of a disciplinary interview? What is the difference between an investigatory interview and a disciplinary interview? Who should conduct a disciplinary meeting? Who should be present at a disciplinary interview? Can an employer invite an employee to attend a disciplinary hearing when he or she is on sick leave? Do workers have the right to be accompanied at disciplinary hearings? For the purpose of the right to be accompanied how is a disciplinary or grievance hearing defined? Who can be chosen as a companion at a disciplinary or grievance hearing? What is a "reasonable" request by a worker to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing? Can an employer reject an employee’s choice of companion for a disciplinary or grievance hearing? Must an employer permit a 16 or 17 year old to be accompanied by a parent at a disciplinary or grievance hearing? Is a fellow worker or trade union official obliged to accept a request to accompany a worker at a disciplinary or grievance hearing?
Yes. There is no requirement in s.10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 that a trade union official who accompanies a worker at a disciplinary or grievance hearing must be from a recognised trade union. The official must simply be either employed by a trade union of which he or she is an official, or a lay official of a trade union whom the union has reasonably certified in writing as having experience of, or as having received training in, acting as a worker's companion at disciplinary or grievance hearings. Certification may take the form of a card or letter. If the worker is a member of a non-recognised trade union, the worker may therefore ask to be accompanied by a trade union official from that trade union. Indeed, there is no requirement in the legislation for the worker to be a member of the trade union at all to be accompanied by a trade union official, although in practice trade unions rarely support workers who are not their members.
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