Written warnings: do they all add up?

This article originally appeared on WorkplaceInfo. (16/06/11)
Source: Paul Munro, IR Consultant.

When breaches of different policies are committed by the same employee, employers are sometimes uncertain as to how to handle a trail of warnings when it comes to dismissal. This issue was raised in a recent inquiry to WorkplaceInfo.


Q: We have an employee who had some performance-related problems – specifically breaching a number of Company policies.

Some three months ago, the employee was issued with a written warning because of a breach of the company’s occupational health and safety policy.

Because of the nature of the breach, the written warning has a review period of six months.

Recently, the employee was absent for three days without authorisation by the company, nor could the employee provide reasonable evidence, upon request by his manager, providing a reasonable excuse for the absence.

We now wish to give the employee a final written warning because of the unexplained absence.

Can we refer to the existing written warning (OHS breach) when justifying giving the employee a final written warning, even though each breach relates to a different behavioural issue?

A: Any previous warning, issued for whatever reasonable cause, is relevant in relation to any subsequent warning or dismissal. Industrial courts and tribunals consider that a warning(s) does not have to relate to the same reason as the reason an employee was subsequently dismissed.

Continued breaches of company policies does not mean each breach can be disaggregated from the employee’s overall behaviour, if earlier warnings relate to breaches of different policies.

A valid reason for dismissal, ultimately, is the ongoing individual breaches of a number of different company policies.