1. Appoint a Manager to conduct the Appeal (“Appeal Manager”)
- The Appeal Manager is a different person from initial Manager
- The Appeal Manager should be someone who has not had any direct involvement with the discussion so far, ideally being someone who sits outside the local region and has seniority.
2. The Appeal Manager sends invitation letter to employee setting out time and date for meeting and asking them to provide their points of appeal (“Grounds of appeal“ – a more detailed reasons as to why the find the decision is unfair)
3. Employee can be accompanied by fellow employee or Trade Union rep at this meeting.
4. The employee presents to the Appeal manager point by point from their grounds of appeal why they feel the decision is unfair and provide any evidence to support their grounds
5. The Appeal manager listens – asks questions of clarification as appropriate
6. When the employee has finished presenting their points the meeting is closed
7. The Appeal Manager will take a few days to consider what they have said – and consider any evidence presented to them and make a decision
8. Either REJECT THE APPEAL - which means the original decision still stands as the employee has not provided any evidence to show that the decision was wrong/unfair. If it is 50/50 then you might choose to give the benefit of doubt to the employee
9. Or UPHOLD THE APPEAL - which means the original decision was incorrect as the suspect has provided evidence to show that the decision was wrong and the Appeal Manager has to decide whether to cancel the original sanction/warning completely or to award a lower level sanction.
10. Communicate the decision in the form of a letter