Workplace Disciplinary

[MistressWeatherwax1]

I'm looking for advice on whether an employer can do this or not.

There has been an ongoing issue with some employees, approx 5 out of 25, not following certain guidelines adequately and this has lead to complaints being made by service users.

Management have now decided if they have one more complaint about the issue the whole team will recieve a disciplinary, even if they were not responsible. They will be disciplined for being part of the team on the day their colleague messes up, unless the colleague holds their hands up and accepts full responsibility.

Can management do this?

Have the employees who are not following guidelines been trained and had performance reviews, has anyone spoken to management or whistle-blowedr, do their colleagues know they are not following guidelines and reported it. What sort of work is it, are services uses at risk. Are any of the employees or management under a regulatory body.

Are the people not responsible seeing the breaches or are they occurring out of sight/hearing? Or would they have opportunity to step in or not?

I understand that in the war if a joint on war ship/plane was found to be faulty the Germans shot not only the person responsible bit also the people either side.(may not be true)

Yes there is a regulatory body for the employees and the business. Employees are all trained and some have been in the industry for ten plus years.

My issue is if a team of six staff have two of the members responsible for a task, which the other staff aren't part of and don't see happening, and the two appointed staff do this task poorly or incorrectly, then can the other four staff be held accountable for this and disciplined?

If the task was missed completely then yes the other team members would notice on the paperwork and step up but if the appointed staff are doing the task poorly/incorrectly then the rest of us have no way of knowing this.

Yes there is a regulatory body for the employees and the business. Employees are all trained and some have been in the industry for ten plus years.

My issue is if a team of six staff have two of the members responsible for a task, which the other staff aren't part of and don't see happening, and the two appointed staff do this task poorly or incorrectly, then can the other four staff be held accountable for this and disciplined?

If the task was missed completely then yes the other team members would notice on the paperwork and step up but if the appointed staff are doing the task poorly/incorrectly then the rest of us have no way of knowing this.

You could probably have a claim for constructive dismissal. But. You would need to raise a complaint before continuing to work under those conditions.
i would just get a new job.

It's a very weak manager who has not directly addressed the issues. With the under performers and dealt with that 1.1.

I don't see how there could be a claim for constructive dismissal? Not least because there's been no resignation.

IANA(Employment)L but I don't think there would be a legal issue in raising a disciplinary in itself on this point. It depends what the disciplinary action leads to. If it led to dismissal, then likely yes if the employee has over 2 years service. Do you have over two years' service OP?

If it leads to a lack of promotion/pay rise - that you need an employment lawyer as I don't know how much discretion employers have but I'd anticipate that unless the practice was discriminatory (no suggestion of this on the facts) then how an employer makes decisions on promotion/pay rise is up to them.

I would write in advance of an incident advising it’s nonsensical as you have do not have full oversight and advise management review their processes and checks to prevent it happening.
state if a task is completely missed you will flag it to your line manager so they can raise it with the relevant individual who failed to perform the task but if you have no visibility and have mo awareness you can’t be held responsible
Also advise if disciplined for the work of others you can’t control you will raise a grievance.

when it happens, and it will, if you are disciplined raise a grievance

separately
stop doing the work when the coworker fucks up - flag it to the boss it’s their problem.
andddd they sound like clowns do your CV and get out.

If the clients are at risk and nothing has been done to address the issue I'd be tempted to cobract their regulatory body especially if clients are at risk of being harmed, what sort of work is it.

No you can't discipline unrelated team members for an issue just because they happen to be working on the same day.

You've referred to 'management' but it's not clear whether this has now become company policy or whether it is a single manager that isn't prepared to performance manage particular people so is thinking that the team will just do the work instead and solve the problem for them

Have you spoken to your HR team about this proclamation? If not, do! If it has come from them then a call to ACAS is in order