Disciplinary Appeal: Manager’s authority

Disciplinary Appeal: Manager’s authority

Employees have the right to appeal to a disciplinary outcome.

A recent case from the Court of Appeal has drawn our attention to a manager’s authority to increase sanction following an appeal investigation, for example from a written warning to a dismissal.  The case was raised when an employee of the NHS Trust was issued with a final written warning;  she exercised her right to appeal the penalty but during the investigation  process feared the initial penalty may be raised to dismissal and attempted to withdraw her appeal.

She was granted an injunction by the Court of Appeal to prevent the NHS Trust from reconvening and considering an appeal sanction.  The Court of Appeal made this decision based on the non-statutory guidance given in the relevant ACAS guide in which it states that an appeal “should not result in any increase in penalty as this may deter individuals from appealing”.

Using this advice, the Court deemed therefore that the Trusts Disciplinary policy did not grant them authority to raise that sanction on appeal.  

TAMAR HR VIEWPOINT:  Following this case Tamar feels that appeals should always be beneficial to the employee and the outcomes of an appeal should not result in a more severe penalty.

Therefore we are looking to review our disciplinary policy by making it clear that the options open to an appeal panel are to either:

·         Accept the appeal and remove or reduce the sanction given

·         Reject the appeal and leave the original sanction in place.