Davies Ndumiso Sibanda
MANY disciplinary authorities cost a lot of employers money due to negligently handling the disciplinary process.
It is very common these days to find employers battling with costs related to wrongful dismissal of employees and in most cases these amounts are huge running into thousands of dollars.
Of late I have seen many awards and judgments, which are in excess of $100,000 and these at times result in collapse of the business or seizure of some of the employer’s assets.
The starting point is to ensure that nobody fills a complaint form unless he/she is properly trained as this is a highly legal and technical process which requires that the correct charge be cited and the supporting grounds of charge clearly stated.
However, in many instances, complainants either pick on wrong charges or they prefer multiple charges that are based on the same facts in an effort to get rid of the employee at all costs.
This is usually the start of the problems for the employer as that process will be challenged.
Another challenge is failure to properly constitute the disciplinary committee or having the disciplinary committee composed of contaminated individuals leading to defendants complaining that they were prejudiced at that stage.
At times the real substantive issues against the defendant are not clear resulting in a confused and unfocused hearing whose facts may lead to the employee being reinstated if the penalty was a dismissal.
There are times when the whole process lacks integrity.
This is where managers who are appointed to sit in the disciplinary committee go to the hearing with an agenda to dismiss at all costs.
They use threats during the hearing, intimidate the worker representative into submission moreso if they are employees and they breach all the principles of natural justice in search of a dismissal.
All this in most cases results in a dismissed employee being reinstated at a huge cost to the employer.
There are many other things that employers do wrong such as charging employees without solid evidence, doctoring minutes to suit employers’ interest, failure to observe set time frames, poor decision making and when the matter goes outside, failure to respect due process.
In conclusion, to avoid having to pay huge costs related to unfair dismissals, it is cheaper to invest in proper training for both management and worker representatives who sit in disciplinary hearings.
Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Or cell No: 0772 375 235