Disciplinary
Facing a workplace disciplinary process
Everything on this site about disciplinary action, in one place: what your employer has to do at each stage, what you are entitled to ask for, and where a case is actually won or lost, which is almost always before the hearing rather than in it. Start wherever your question is.
Do I have to go into a disciplinary hearing on my own?
Short answer No, and you do not need to be in a union to bring someone.
Where the hearing could result in a formal warning or other disciplinary action, you have a statutory right to be accompanied by a fellow worker, a trade union representative, or a trade union official. That right does not depend on union membership. Before the hearing you should also be given enough detail of the allegation to answer it, and normally the written evidence, including any witness statements. The right person beside you and the case set out in advance are what let you answer the allegation rather than react to it.
Key rule
The notification of a disciplinary hearing must contain enough information about the alleged misconduct and its possible consequences for the employee to prepare, and would normally include copies of the written evidence and any witness statements. Where the hearing could result in a formal warning or other disciplinary action, the worker has the right to be accompanied by a companion within the permitted categories.
Source: ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures (2015), paragraphs 9, 10 and 13 to 14, and Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10
Practical guidance: The right does not depend on union membership, and a request to be accompanied does not have to be in writing. Where your chosen companion is unavailable, you can propose a reasonable alternative time within five working days of the date originally proposed.
If you want to see where your employer’s process has already departed from the Code before you do anything else, the free Position Review walks through it stage by stage, and the answer turns on what the Code requires rather than on the strength of the allegation.
Three steps, in order
Learn, test, act
Most people arrive at a disciplinary knowing they disagree with the allegation and not knowing what their employer is actually required to do. These three take you from one to the other, and the first two are free and require nothing from you.
The questions people actually ask
Disciplinary questions, answered
Each of these links to the answer on the guide that covers it. Nothing is duplicated here, because two pages answering the same question is two places for the answer to drift.
What commonly goes wrong
Drawn from the disciplinary hearings guide, because these are the points that decide most disciplinary outcomes, and they are worth meeting before the hearing rather than after it.
- An allegation raised for the first time in the hearing. The case is confined to what the notification letter set out, and anything new requires fresh notification and time to answer it.
- A decision that reads as though it was written before the meeting, which is the practical failure paragraph 4 is aimed at.
- Anonymised witness evidence provided with so little substance that you cannot meaningfully raise points about it.
- No opportunity to call a relevant witness, or a request to do so refused without a reason.
- An outcome given verbally and never confirmed in writing, so the reasoning, the duration of any warning and the right of appeal are never recorded.
- A written warning that does not set out the improvement required, the timescale, how long it remains current, or the consequences of further misconduct, all of which paragraph 21 requires.
Your next step
If you have already had the outcome
If a warning, a sanction or a dismissal has already been decided, the next step is usually an internal appeal. Appeal windows are often short and are set by your employer’s own procedure, so it is worth checking the deadline before you decide whether you have grounds. The Appeal Hub covers what counts as a ground, how to test yours, and the tribunal deadline that an internal appeal does not pause.
Seen in practice
Anonymised accounts of real matters
Written around the method rather than the result: what was alleged, what the evidence actually showed, where the employer’s own procedure was departed from, and what was put on the record.
Primary sources
- ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, in force 11 March 2015, paragraphs 4, 9 to 14 and 18 to 27, via acas.org.uk. The draft revised Code published 30 July 2026 is not in force.
- Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10, on the right to be accompanied, via legislation.gov.uk
- Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 94 and 98, via legislation.gov.uk
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