The Appeal

The opportunity to appeal against a disciplinary decision is essential to natural justice. An appeal may be submitted because the employee is dissatisfied with the level of action taken or disputes the grounds for the decision.

On receipt of a completed DCP/2/2015 within 14 days of receipt of the letter notifying disciplinary action, the appropriate Head of Service will nominate an officer to hear the appeal.  All appeals will be heard, where possible, by a more senior manager not previously involved with the case. The employee has to state the grounds for the appeal which includes:

• Admitting the misconduct but disputing the level of action taken.
• Submitting additional evidence not considered at the disciplinary hearing for example mitigating circumstances. In this situation the appellant would be expected to give an explanation as to why the information was not available / provided at the time of the original hearing.
• Denying the allegation(s).
• List of witnesses

The appeals process can never be used to increase the level of action taken, but any defects in the original disciplinary process can be remedied by a properly heard appeal.

Arrangements for the appeal will be undertaken in accordance with those set out for a disciplinary hearing and the procedure followed will be the same as for the Appeals Panel.

If you are appointed as the nominated officer, when reaching your decision you have three options:

• To uphold the appeal which means that the action will be removed from the employee's record.
• To uphold the appeal in part which means that the previous action has been recognised as being too harsh and should be reduced accordingly for example a Final Written Warning is replaced with a Warning.
• To reject the appeal which means that the original action stands.

Once you have reached your decision, you should reconvene the appeal and advise the employee and their companion of the decision reached.

You must issue written confirmation of the appeal within 7 days of conclusion of the hearing.