Right to accompaniment at disciplinary meeting

Right to be accompanied at a disciplinary meeting:

Yes, you have a statutory right to be accompanied at a disciplinary hearing. This right is set out in section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999.

Who can accompany you:

Under the statute, you are entitled to choose a companion who is either a fellow worker employed by the same employer, or a trade union representative. A trade union representative means an official employed by the union or a lay union official who has been reasonably certified by the union as having experience of, or having received training in, acting as a companion at disciplinary or grievance hearings.

What the companion can do:

Your companion is entitled to address the hearing to put and sum up your case, respond on your behalf to any views expressed at the hearing, and confer with you during the hearing. However, the companion does not have a statutory right to answer questions on your behalf, although many employers will allow this in practice.

What about a lawyer or family member:

The statutory right does not extend to being accompanied by a solicitor, family member, or friend. However, some employers allow this as a matter of their own internal policy, so it is always worth checking your employer's disciplinary procedure or staff handbook. Certain specific situations, such as police misconduct proceedings, have their own separate rules that may allow legal representation.

Practical points:

1. Check your employer's disciplinary policy carefully, as it may give you broader rights than the statutory minimum.
2. If your chosen companion is not available on the date proposed, you have the right to propose an alternative date, which must be within five working days of the original date.
3. Your employer must allow your companion reasonable time off work to attend and must not subject either you or your companion to any detriment for exercising this right.
4. If your employer unreasonably refuses your right to be accompanied, you can bring a claim to an employment tribunal. The tribunal can award up to two weeks' pay as compensation.

One important nuance: the right applies to a "disciplinary hearing" as defined in the legislation, which broadly covers hearings that could result in a formal warning or some other disciplinary action. It does not necessarily apply to informal or investigatory meetings, although again many employers extend the right to those meetings as a matter of good practice, and the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures encourages employers to allow accompaniment at investigation meetings where it is reasonable to do so.

If your employer is refusing to allow you to bring someone, check the specific wording of the internal policy, confirm the nature of the meeting, and remind them of the statutory right if it applies. If the meeting is an investigation rather than a formal hearing, you can still make a reasonable request and point to the ACAS Code.