The employee in this dispute concerning allegations of failure to perform duties with due diligence, resulting in a stage 3 sanction in a disciplinary hearing, had approximately seven years’ experience before leaving the company in 2012. 

The union claimed that fair procedures were not carried out (and in particular that abridged, rather than full, witness statements were provided, even at the internal appeal stage) and that the sanction imposed was too severe. However, management claimed that there was a full investigation in accordance with its disciplinary and appeals policy and that this was carried out in a fair and reasonable manner.

The matter was referred to a Rights Commissioner for investigation and the Commissioner recommended that “the claimant was denied fair procedures in this matter and, accordingly, recommend that the disciplinary sanction applied to the claimant be voided and expunged from the claimant’s record”. 

The employer appealed this recommendation and the case was passed to the Labour Court. 

The Labour Court noted that the Company had agreed to supply full rather than summarised witness statements in all future disciplinary hearings. In contrast to the Rights Commissioner’s recommendation, the court found that management dealt with the disciplinary in a fair and reasonable manner and due to the fact the claimant has left the company to pursue another job “it would serve no practical purpose to make any further alteration to the Rights Commissioner’s Recommendation in this case”:
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