Terminations & Disciplinary Actions

Common examples of disciplinary actions, provided they are justified, reasonable and proportionate, could include:

- Counselling;
- Training;
- Warnings;
- Suspension;
- Demotion; and
- Termination of employment.

Disciplinary action should be taken if two main categories occur:

- Performance related conduct – an employee is not accurately performing their job to your satisfaction; or
- Inappropriate conduct or misconduct – an employee has breached your organisation’s policies.

If you are terminating an employee’s employment due to their poor performance, it is important that this is a fair termination (having a good reason for it). This therefore means you should ensure your employee is knowledgeable on the expected level of performance, and you must set a time frame in which improvement should occur. Make sure they are aware that if they do not change their behaviour, this may result in termination. You should also ensure your employee has a reasonable chance to respond to your criticism.

A resignation is when an employee decides to end their employment on their own terms, whereas a termination is when the employer decided that the employee will no longer work for the company.

There are many factors to be considered when terminating someone’s employment. These are:

- The amount of notice (if any) you will give to the employee;
- If the employee is being fired, made redundant or resigning;
- If there are any factors of potential discrimination (such as age, race, mental health); and
- Could an unfair dismissal claim arise?

If you have given your employee a notice of termination of employment including clear terms, the notice of termination cannot be withdrawn unless the employee consents to the withdrawal. If you have given an unlawful notice of termination, the employee is able to treat the notice as ineffective and their employment will continue, however this is rare and difficult to prove.

If your employee has resigned but changed their mind and wants to come back to work, it’s your choice whether you allow them back or not. If you do not consent to your employee withdrawing their resignation, the resignation will remain.