What is a suitable disciplinary notice?

[wearymum73]

I was just wondering the minimum notice a company should give for a disciplinary notice?
My DD has been given a letter for a disciplinary hearing for 16 hours after been hand given the letter.
She is 18, has no idea about employment rules, I'm currently out of the country working and can not get the resources I nee to help her.
It's only a minor event, too much talking.
Can she ask for it to be referred due to lack of notice?

It's what is reasonable to arrange being accompanied and consider the evidence. If it's a minor hearing for too much talking she's unlikely to endear herself to management by arguing for an extension - I suggest she goes along, listens and promises to improve.

Make sure she doesn't minimise the problem either. Too much talking might not sound like much of a problem but is time-wasting and can be very annoying for co-workers, or could be downright dangerous in some work environments. Suggest she goes along, acknowledges the problem and promises improvement in the future. If she is only 18, this is probably her first job so she may not have understood that it's not school and employers are less likely to be tolerant of chatting than teachers. It does sound a bit heavy-handed to immediately hand out a disciplinary for this but she may work in a very structured work environment or one where talking cannot be tolerated. Is this the first time the talking has been brought up? Is there more to this than she is telling you?

I think any less than 24 hours is unreasonable. There has to be sufficient time for the employee to prepare a defence, therefore even more than 24 hours may be required if, for example, there is CCTV footage to be viewed or that kind of thing.

My workplace offers 3 days notice which I think is more than sufficient, I have worked elsewhere where 24 hours was the minimum but would be extended for good reason

16 hours isn't a lot of notice, but on the other hand there is no value in asking for it to be postponed if she doesn't actually need it to be.

If she is arranging representation from a colleague or union rep and her chosen person isn't available at that notice she should ask for it to be postponed.

However I doubt she needs time to prepare for this type of disciplinary. It's not as if there is heaps of evidence to wade through, or a defence to complicated allegations to prepare, so I would agree with Hermione, if she doesn't actually need a postponement, why irritate people by asking for one.

If there is lots to prepare, then yes do ask, but otherwise I think I'd be inclined to get it over with tbh.

Just wondering if the too much talking has been discussed with her previously. I would expect such an issue to be approached informally in the first instance, and not via disciplinary channels. Hopefully your daughter will be given clear guidance in the meeting on what is and isn't acceptable, so she's not deterred from talking altogether.