jimbob wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:15 am
discovolante wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:47 am
bagpuss wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:31 am
I don't understand what is going on with these police officers who get to keep their jobs after being found to have committed gross misconduct. In every job I've ever worked in, gross misconduct means you clear out your personal belongings under supervision and are escorted out of the building right there and then, never darken our doors again thank you very much and goodbye. Every contract I've ever had has been very clear that for most things there's a disciplinary procedure to be followed with warnings and so on but for gross misconduct, there's no such process (other than fair hearing and appeal or whatever) and you're immediately out on your ear. How is this not the case for the police?
Um I would have thought employers would potentially get themselves in difficulty if they sacked someone without an investigation/procedure - not to say it doesn't happen on a regular basis - but they could immediately suspend someone pending the outcome of the investigation.
That's how I read Bagpuss' post.
Fair hearing and appeal but no warnings for gross misconduct, unlike normal disciplinary action - for example timekeeping.
Yes, that's what I meant, sorry if it was unclear. So for any other misconduct, there's a series of warnings and action plans, etc, etc, which may eventually progress to dismissal if the misconduct continues or is repeated too many times, despite all efforts by managers to address it with the employee. Whereas for gross misconduct yes, you get a fair hearing and the right to appeal but if the complaint of misconduct is upheld then you're out on your ear, no warnings or chance to improve. And once the gross misconduct is either admitted to or is deemed to have happened after fair hearing, they are escorted out of the building, stopping only to pick up personal belongings. And I've always had contracts that make it abundantly clear that that is the result of gross misconduct - you are sacked, end of story.
And yet, there seem to be cases in the police where gross misconduct is deemed proven but no or minimal action is taken, or it's just a written warning. In the case Gfamily linked to, it seems to have only come to light several years after the event because the woman did not make a complaint at the time, and so the officer's apparently blameless record since then seems to have been taken into account. But I'm fairly sure I remember other cases where gross misconduct has been upheld and the officer has not been dismissed. I couldn't think of any specifics so I did a search which came up with
this which shows that in the Met, over the 3 years from 16/17 to 18/19, very nearly 10% of gross misconduct cases where the misconduct was proven led to people keeping their jobs. And a quarter of those had no action taken against them at all.
(Edit - to fix could to couldn't)