Companies are being told that they must have a consistent approach to
disciplinary action in the workplace, to avoid procedural breaches
that could cost the company in the long run.
The advice is coming from Management Consultant Brittany Brathwaite,
who is a former Labour Management Advisor with the Barbados Employers’
Confederation (BEC). During a recent webinar hosted by the Sagicor
Cave Hill School of Business on the theme ‘Labour Relations in the
Caribbean’, Brathwaite made the point while reflecting on the unfair
dismissal case brought against Chefette Restaurants Limited, on which
the Caribbean Court of Justice made a ruling last month.
“We need to have a very proactive manner from the employer
perspective, to the way in which we revise our policy documents,
ensuring that trending breaches and trending things that may warrant
disciplinary action are actually reflected in our Code of Discipline
as required by the Employment Rights Act. And therefore, if you have
to take action based on a breach, that it is clearly outlined what the
commensurate disciplinary action is for that breach,” Brathwaite
explained.
In that vein, the management consultant made it clear that companies
cannot afford to be updating their codes of discipline and employee
handbooks once every few years. Rather, she said, such has to be an
ongoing process, to make sure that the policy documents are aligned
with the company’s procedural action.
“Therefore, when you make or take a step towards disciplinary action,
that it is pellucidly clear from both the employer and the employee’s
purview what breach warrants what commensurate disciplinary action,”
she stated.
Adding to her comments, Sheena Mayers-Granville, Executive Director of
the BEC, reiterated the need for documentation and clear guidelines,
noting that while very often employers have good reasons to separate
from employers, failure to follow the process is where they fall down.
“In my experience sometimes breach of process can be glaring, but
there are some times I know where employers would have taken certain
steps but they would not have been documented well enough. So you have
to be mindful to follow the process at each and every stage, no matter
how onerous it may seem, because process is the one thing that would
get you all of the time,” she said. (JRT)