Dismissal after disciplinary hearing

[maggiethecat]

Need to get up to speed on procedural matters/basic employment law to help a friend.
6 months ago she intervened in a physical dispute at work between colleagues in an attempt to calm things down. She was suspended with reduced pay and for months heard nothing. She wrote to them to enquire about her position and eventually a fact finding meeting was held.
After months of awaiting the outcome she was informed by letter that she has been dismissed and was given 5 w. days to appeal.
There are a number of things that strike me as wrong about how she has been treated - 1. Lack of regard for providing information/dealing with the matter in a timely manner
2.fact finding meeting was held and she was not given minutes of meeting/any opportunity to respond/correct
3.the grounds for dismissal seem very weak, I need to get clarification but it sounded along the lines of 'you did not calm the situation but fuelled it by your actions'

1. Timescale for appeal seems very short especially since the 5 days ran from the date of the letter which was posted 3 days after the letter date.
   

It may be that she has been unfairly dismissed and some information on procedural rules (to determine if they complied) and grounds for appeal would be useful.

[EBearhug]

Does she have copies of the employer's grievance procedure and so on? If not, can she get someone still there to get copies?

There's an ACAS guide here

Is she in a union?

[flowery]

That seems very bizarre. Suspended for months and then dismissed by letter without a hearing?

They haven't followed a fair procedure. If you look at the Acas website there is a code of practice for disciplinaries on there which employers are expected to follow. How long has she worked there?

[flowery]

Sorry EBearhug just spotted your link!

[maggiethecat]

Ebearhug - she's in union but recently joined, worked there for 6 years and never had a complaint about work or behaviour.

Flowery - she was suspended for a few months and after writing to them enquiring about her position there was a fact finding meeting and then she had to wait for 2 more months to be informed summarily dismissed.

Question - in her appeal letter should she limit her reasons for appeal to the responses to their grounds for dismissal or should she include lack of proper procedure at this stage?

[maggiethemagpie]

Sounds like they have not given her a disciplinary hearing. Does she have more than two years service?

[flowery]

That's appalling.

For a conduct dismissal to be fair, it has to have been a reasonable decision to dismiss for the offence in question and a fair procedure needs to have been followed. So in her appeal she should have two sections. One section about why the decision to dismiss was unreasonable (could be disproportionately harsh, could be lack of evidence, could be inconsistency with previous approach to similar instances, could be an exemplary disciplinary record to date, etc etc), and then another section pointing out every single aspect of the ACAS code that wasn't followed and exactly how they failed to follow it.

[maggiethemagpie]

On the plus side if it did happen exactly the way you say, and she has been there more than 2 years, she could take them to the cleaners....

[maggiethecat]

Hi. I was wrong - incident happened, suspended immediately, then 2 weeks later she attended a fact finding hearing then nothing for 3 months, she wrote to them enquiring and 2 weeks later informed investigation taking some time, then 2 months later disciplinary meeting and one month later letter of dismissal.
Procedure still seems unfair.

[flowery]

Well it sounds like it took an unreasonably long time, but as long as she was given a hearing, right to bring a colleague/union rep, right of appeal etc I'm not sure the timescale is enough.

[maggiethecat]

you mean not sure timescale is sufficient to question whether dismissal unfair?

That's just one aspect - she was accused of threatening behaviour when 2 independent witnesses say she was trying to calm situation; the alleged victim who was the only person who claims friend was acting with others against her did not attend my friend's disciplinary meeting although called to attend. There is just not enough evidence to reasonably conclude that she was threatening.

In addition, there is clean record of behaviour etc for 6 years - action seems disproportionately harsh.