Workplace

Section 02Disciplinary RecordsWhat Disciplinary Records is for#

Facto could already record a fine: the reason, the act, the date, the chance the person was given to explain, and the money that came out. What it could not record was the same event with any other outcome — and a verbal warning, a written warning, a final warning or a suspension are the overwhelming majority of what actually happens. The one outcome the product supported was the rarest and the most legally constrained.

Three things followed from that, and this module fixes all three:

• A warning was written down nowhere. "Has this been raised with them before?" — the question every disciplinary process turns on — was answered from memory.
• A termination for cause looked like any other exit. Which is exactly the distinction a tribunal asks about.
• A show-cause notice survived only where a fine followed it. If the explanation was accepted and nothing was done, the fact that a proper process had run was lost — so the register could show punishment and never restraint.

⚠ This is not a grievance desk, and the difference is the direction. A grievance is an employee raising something; a disciplinary case is the company acting on an employee. Somebody who wants to raise how they have been treated uses Support → HR Grievance, which is marked confidential and goes to HR rather than to their manager — deliberately, because a grievance is very often about the manager.

⚠ It is also not the place for a POSH complaint. A complaint under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013 needs a constituted Internal Committee, statutory timelines and its own confidential register. None of that is here, and running one through this screen would fail requirements the Act imposes rather than merely being untidy.

Who can read a case#

This is the part worth reading before anything else, because it is the whole premise of the module.

A case is readable by:

• the person it concerns — always, and this cannot be switched off. They were served the notice; a record about somebody that they cannot read is one they cannot correct.
• whoever raised it.
• anybody with permission to read every case — normally HR.
• their direct manager, if the case is not marked confidential, and further up their reporting line only if you have set it that way.

Nobody else. Not their colleagues, not their department, and not somebody two levels above them unless you have deliberately chosen that. Anybody opening a case sees a line at the top saying which of those applies to them.

⚠ Note what is deliberately absent: there is no disciplinary tile on the HRM home page, and nothing on the /users screen. A home-page count reading "2 open cases" is visible over somebody's shoulder, and a conduct history has no business on the page somebody opens to change a phone number.

Settings#

WhereSettings›HRM›Disciplinary Records

OpenDisciplinary Records→

Three things to set, and the first is the one with a consequence.

How far up the reporting line a case is visible. One level — their direct manager and nobody above — is the default. Zero means HR only, which some companies want. ⚠ Changing it applies to cases raised from then on. Cases already raised keep the visibility they were created with, because somebody was told at the time who would see them.

Which reasons your company uses. These group the register so a pattern can be seen. Switch off any that do not apply: a company with no certified standing orders has nothing to charge anybody under breach of a standing order, and offering it produces a case that cannot be defended. Switching one off never changes cases already recorded under it. The last one cannot be switched off — with none in use, no case could be raised at all.

How many days a show-cause notice gives somebody, by default. It can be changed on any individual notice.

Permissions#

Four, and the split is the point:

• View Own — cases about yourself. Every employee has it by default, and that is not a preference.
• View All — every case in the company. Never granted by default: it is the whole conduct history of everybody who works here.
• Raise a case — putting an allegation on somebody's permanent record, and issuing the show-cause notice on it. Never granted by default.
• Decide — recording the outcome. ⚠ This is the authority to decide, not a place in an approval queue: nothing routes here and nobody is asked. It is deliberately separate from Salary → Deductions → Manage, because deciding that somebody breached a safety rule and deciding what comes out of their payslip are different acts by different people.

⚠ Until an administrator grants the last three under Settings → Roles, only an admin can raise or decide anything.

Two more, which live elsewhere and matter here:

• Salary → Deductions → Manage is what lets somebody actually impose the fine a case decides on. Without it you can record the outcome; the money is a separate act.
• Exits → Manage is what lets somebody open the exit a termination calls for. You need it and Decide — one press, both permissions.

Section 03Disciplinary RecordsRaising a case#

OpenDisciplinary Records→

Press Raise a case. You name the person, pick a reason, and write what happened.

⚠ The written description is the field that matters, and Facto insists on a real sentence. The reason code only groups the register. §8(1) of the Payment of Wages Act allows a fine only for acts on the employer's own approved list, displayed at the workplace — Facto cannot hold that list, so the sentence you write is what the record actually rests on. It is what the person will be asked to answer, and what somebody reads back in two years. A case whose grounds are just "misconduct" cannot be defended and cannot be explained.

Two dates, because they are two facts. When the thing happened, and when it reached you. The gap between them is the first thing anybody reviewing a disciplinary process looks at — a matter acted on five weeks late is a different matter from one acted on the next day. The second date cannot be edited afterwards.

Severity is how the register reads and nothing more. It does not pick an outcome, shorten a deadline or change who can see the case.

⚠ Raising a case notifies nobody. The person is told when you issue the show-cause notice, which is the next step and the one the process rests on.

Section 04Disciplinary RecordsThe show-cause notice#

Open the case and press Issue a show-cause notice. This is where the matter is actually put to the person and they are asked to explain, by a date.

⚠ This is the step everything else depends on. §8(3) requires it before any fine, and every standing order requires it before anything worse. It is the only act here that notifies the employee — they are told that a matter has been raised with them formally and by when they must answer, and nothing about what is alleged goes into the notification. That is on the case, which only they, you and HR can read.

The notice is pre-filled with the case's own description so the two say the same thing — a notice restated from memory is how they diverge, and a divergence is the first thing an appeal finds. Edit it to address the person directly.

The deadline is optional. A company that gives somebody "a few days" verbally has still served a notice. ⚠ But with no date, nothing will ever remind you the case is outstanding — the reminder has nothing to count from.

A copy of the notice is produced and filed on the person's record automatically, restricted to them and to whoever can already read the case. Turn that off only if you are serving your own printed form.

One live notice at a time. A second is refused while the first is unanswered: two notices means two deadlines, and somebody who answered one has answered "the notice" as far as they are concerned.

Section 05Disciplinary RecordsRecording the response#

Press Record their response and write what they said.

⚠ Record it whether or not you accept it. A file holding only the company's side reads as a formality, and the answer is what an outcome has to be reasoned against.

If a meeting was held, Record a hearing puts who attended and what came of it on the same timeline. It is optional — many companies decide on the papers, and a case with no hearing is not an incomplete case.

⚠ Nothing on the timeline can be edited once recorded. The question a disciplinary record exists to answer is what was decided, when, and by whom — and an edited entry answers it with today's version wearing an old date.

Section 06Disciplinary RecordsNobody responded#

You are reminded once a day after the date passes — you, not the employee.

Chasing somebody for an answer they may have chosen not to give turns a reminder into pressure, and the person who needs to know the clock ran out is the one who has to decide what happens next. Nothing happens automatically: it is for you to proceed, extend the date, or close the matter.

Section 07Disciplinary RecordsRecording the outcome#

Press Record the outcome and pick one of seven. The screen tells you what each one does before you press anything, because three of them do something outside this module and none of that is guessable from a label.

No action — the finding that the explanation was accepted and nothing follows.

⚠ That is not an escape hatch, it is the point. If somebody explains themselves and you accept it, that has to be recordable — otherwise the register shows only the times people were punished, and the whole process reads as a formality. It is also the outcome that proves due process actually ran.

Verbal warning — spoken to, and the fact recorded. Nothing is served. What the file keeps is that it happened and when, which is what answers "has this been raised with them before?" next time.

Written warning and final warning — a letter, produced and filed on their record. ⚠ The two letters differ in exactly one sentence: a final warning says in terms that a further instance may end the employment, and an ordinary one deliberately does not. Do not use "final" to mean "serious" — an ordinary warning carrying that sentence is a final warning, whatever the heading says.

Suspension — kept away from work between two dates, on full pay or without it. See below; the unpaid version reaches payroll.

Fine — see below. Recording it does not, by itself, take any money.

Termination — see below. It does not, by itself, end the employment.

Every outcome asks why, and that reasoning is what the file keeps: it is what answers "why was that decided?" when somebody reads the case in two years. It is not sent to the employee and it is not in the letter — the letter states the finding. The person is told a decision was taken and what it was, and never the reasoning.

⚠ A decision cannot be edited or taken back. Every other record in Facto has an edit button; this one does not, because the question a disciplinary record exists to answer is what was decided, when, and by whom — and an edited entry answers it with today's version wearing an old date. If the decision changes, that is an appeal.

Suspending somebody without pay#

Give the first day, the last day, and whether it is on full pay.

If it is without pay, Facto stages the days as loss of pay in every payroll month the period touches, and shows you the exact month-by-month split before you press the button. A suspension running 28 September to 3 October stages three days against September and three against October — not six against one of them.

⚠ Loss of pay is not a deduction, and the difference is worth understanding. A deduction comes out of wages that were earned, and the law caps all deductions in a month at half of them. Loss of pay is wages that were never earned, because the person was not at work — so it is not subject to that cap, and putting a suspension through the deductions route would eat half a ceiling it has no business touching. A legitimate fine or a loan instalment in the same month would then be refused or quietly reduced.

⚠ Two things to check afterwards. A loss-of-pay override replaces the month's attendance figure rather than adding to it, so if the person was also absent for other reasons that month, reconcile the two on Salary → Run payroll → Payment days before you run it. And if the suspension is back-dated into a month you have already run, nothing can be staged for it — the case says so plainly, and those days have to be handled as an adjustment in a later month.

The days are counted as calendar days. If your policy pays weekly offs through a suspension, adjust the staged figure on the payment-days review.

Fining somebody#

Recording fine as the outcome records the decision. Taking the money is a second act, and it needs Salary → Deductions → Manage.

⚠ That separation is deliberate. Deciding that somebody breached a safety rule and deciding what comes out of their payslip are different acts by different people in every company big enough to need either. If you hold both permissions, the outcome screen offers an amount field and does both in one press. If you do not, the screen says so — record the outcome, and whoever manages payroll deductions imposes the fine against the same case afterwards.

⚠ The clock runs from the act, not from your decision. A fine lapses ninety days after the thing happened, and it is capped at 3% of the period's wages. So a case sat on for three months produces an outcome that is perfectly recordable and a fine that cannot lawfully be collected — Facto will refuse the money and tell you why.

The fine, once imposed, appears on the case under "What followed from this", with what is still to recover. Spreading, waiving or writing it off is done on Salary → Fines & recoveries.

Terminating somebody#

⚠ This does not end the employment. It records the decision and produces the termination letter.

The exit — the last working day, how much notice was required and served, which payroll month settles it — is a separate record, because none of those is something a conduct decision can decide and every one of them moves money: notice pay, notice recovery, gratuity eligibility, and the two-working-day clock for the final settlement. An exit opened automatically would carry four guesses that look exactly like four checked figures.

So once the outcome is recorded, the case offers to open the exit, and somebody with both Decide and Exits → Manage fills those in. Until they do, the person is still on next month's payroll — which is the correct behaviour, and the thing to know.

Once the exit exists, it shows on the case and the case shows on the exit. That is what makes a termination for cause distinguishable from any other exit, which was one of the three defects this module was built to fix.

Section 08Disciplinary RecordsWhen somebody appeals#

Press Record their appeal and write what they said. The case goes back into play, and the first decision stands until somebody rules on it.

Then Decide the appeal, which is the same form as the outcome. ⚠ It appends a second decision; it does not replace the first. Both stay on the file, in order, which is the only shape that answers "what was decided, when, and by whom" honestly. An appeal that reduced a dismissal to a final warning reads exactly as that — and the offer to open an exit disappears with it.

⚠ An appeal cannot impose a new fine. The ninety-day clock would still be running from the original act, so it would usually be a fine that could not lawfully be collected. Reducing or cancelling a fine already imposed is a waiver, done on the fine itself.

Section 09Disciplinary RecordsWhen somebody leaves#

The record stays. It outlives the employment on purpose — a termination for cause the data cannot explain is exactly what a tribunal asks about — and Facto refuses to delete a user who has a case on file rather than quietly taking the case with them.

Nothing further is sent to somebody who has left: the reminders check whether an account is still active before chasing anybody.

Section 10Disciplinary RecordsTwo things you cannot do, and why#

Import your existing disciplinary history from a spreadsheet. Every record here asserts that a process ran — that something was put to somebody, that they had a chance to answer. Importing rows in bulk would assert that for hundreds of cases with no evidence any of it happened. The register is worth having because what is in it is true.

Route a case to an approver. There is no queue. An outcome is a decision by an authorised person, and adding a routing step would put misconduct in the same queue as expense claims and leave requests — which is where the wrong person reads it. The authority is the Decide permission, granted to somebody by name.