If your employer believes you have committed acts of misconduct, it will instigate its disciplinary procedures.

Your employer should have its procedures set out in a written policy and share those with you. Those procedures should take account of and incorporate the ACAS code of practice. 

If the allegations are sufficiently serious, you may be suspended on full pay while your employer commences or continues its investigation. 

The process your employer follows will depend on it’s size and policy. Best practice (if there is sufficient resources), is that your employer assigns one manager to investigate the allegations. That manager should make recommendations as to whether formal disciplinary action is needed and, if so, another manager should be appointed to undertake the formal disciplinary hearing. In addition, there should be a separate and more senior manager available to hear any appeal if you are unhappy with the sanction imposed.

Disciplinary procedures are fairly common, and the focus is for your employer to fairly investigate the allegations to be able to decide whether you have committed the alleged acts of misconduct. 

If there is a finding of misconduct, a warning will be imposed.  The level of warning depends on the severity of the alleged misconduct. For minor offences a verbal warning is often imposed. For more serious offences (or further minor acts of misconduct) a written warning could be imposed. The next level of warning is a final written warning and the last stage is often dismissal. 

You need to ensure that your employer has allegations against you that are misconduct and not issues of poor performance. Any allegations of misconduct are very stressful and should be taken seriously by you. Your employer does not need to prove that you have committed the misconduct; simply that having undertaken a fair investigation it is reasonable to conclude that the allegations occurred.  If so, a reasonable sanction should be imposed. 

If the allegations are sufficiently serious it can lead to summary dismissal for gross misconduct, which effectively means your employment ends immediately and you will not be entitled to any notice pay. 

If you are faced with disciplinary action, we strongly recommend you contact one of our expert employment law solicitors to advise you on your position as soon as possible, so we can help you to deal with and respond to the allegations.