Sometimes employers believe they have all the evidence they need to discipline or terminate an employee, even without having talked to the employee and hearing the employee’s side. Why waste time talking to the employee when it seems clear they engaged in the suspected misconduct or some other policy violation? Not so fast. An employer should not deny an employee the “opportunity to be heard” in haste to impose discipline and “be done with the matter.”
In a unionized workforce particularly, it is important that employees are given the opportunity to tell their side of the story before a decision is made to impose discipline. Regardless of how rock-solid you think your case for discipline may be, giving an employee the opportunity to be heard (in both union and non-union environments) is the best approach for a number of reasons, including the following.
First, a thorough investigation and fundamental fairness dictate that you hear what an employee has to say before making a discipline decision. The purpose of a thorough investigation is to assist an employer in gathering all the relevant facts and making an informed decision. Failure to interview the accused may also put the thoroughness of the investigation into question. Also, if an employee is truly being given the opportunity to be heard before a decision is made, the employer probably should not show up at the employee interview with a discipline or termination letter already in hand (making it...
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has urged political parties to focus on state’s real issues during elections and warned that those making what it describes as false or baseless allegations could fac...