What rights do we have as employers to crack down on disciplinary issues under the new disciplnary regulations? We have disiplinary/grievance/appeal policies in place but tend to enforce warnings etc only after several informal ‘warnings’ to give employees opportunities to improve. Where the conduct is severe obviously this doesn’t apply and whenver warnings are issued we always ensure that they have the right to be accompanied etc. However, we think that some of our employees are now taking the ‘mick’. For example some employees have tried to book holiday requests which due to resource/business issues we had to decline. They have then subsequently called in sick on the day that the original holiday request was for. This has happened on more than one occasion for one particular employee. Other employees that have done this drag their sick days by another couple of days which we assume have been for authenciticy. Obviously this seems a huge ‘conincidence’ for us and we don’t want the employees thinking that this is acceptable behaviour and we are worried about setting a precedent for others. Equally, how can we challenge people on this when they will just shrug it off and insist that they were genuinely ill? With no proof to the contrary what can we do to stamp out this behavoiur?
kirsa edwards