While suspending employees from the workplace during an investigation and/or disciplinary process is a last resort, it is a valuable tool available to an employer as a means to protect the best interests of their business. What is the suspension process and how can you conduct a suspension in your workplace if required?
Like any formal procedure in an employment relationship, adequate consultation as a fair and reasonable employer is required when conducting a suspension process. Understand that suspending an employee from the workplace is done with the intention of preserving your business’ best interests. To suspend an employee outside of those parameters would most likely be seen to be disadvantageous and unreasonable. Potential incidents which may prompt an employer to consider suspension with pay include (but are not limited to):
- Act/s of physical aggression – a physical altercation in the workplace or willful damage of company property
- Sexual harassment complaint
- Formal bullying complaint
- Theft and dishonesty – Unauthorised possession of company property such as taking money out of the till for personal gain
As suspending an employee is seen as the last resort, it is recommended that the employer always consider any available alternatives. For instance, allowing the employee to work from home (if applicable) or if the alleged misconduct involves other employees, strategising rostering in a way that avoids affected employees from working at the same time.
If you reach the stage where you have no other option but to suspend an employee from the workplace, you need to start with a proposal to do so. This comes in the form of formally inviting the employee, in writing, to a meeting to discuss that you, as the employer, are proposing to suspend them from the workplace. We understand that there are limited situations where the proposed suspension meeting must be conducted under urgency, at which point you could look at reducing the timeframe for notification regarding holding the meeting. In most situations however, you will be required to send a letter that formally invites the employee to a meeting, giving them adequate notice of the meeting, to discuss their potential suspension. Restaurant Association of New Zealand members can access our resource on suspensions for additional guidance that includes letter templates to use.
During this meeting, it is important that the proposal to suspend the employee is made clear to them. The suspension proposal should be the only topic of discussion in this meeting as disciplinary/investigation matters have their own separate processes (we have also covered this extensively and have the appropriate resources available on our website). After the suspension proposal has been made to the employee and their feedback has been taken into consideration, the meeting should be adjourned. From here, the employer must make a decision to go ahead with the suspension or disband it. The time it takes to make this decision is completely dependent on the circumstances of the matter. Examples include the decision being made within a matter of minutes due to the employee not contributing any feedback to the proposal, or the employee having conflicting information from the employer which would result in the employer having to investigate matters further before making a decision whether to suspend the employee.
Once a decision has been reached, the employer should confirm their decision in writing with the employee. After confirming this, the employer is now free to commence with the appropriate disciplinary/investigation processes.
A final reminder that suspending an employee is a last resort and should only be considered after all other alternatives have been exhausted. It is good practice for an employer to show that all processes were followed accordingly with their good faith obligations. Keeping a detailed written record of matters as you go is a great method to do this. A good rule of thumb to follow is taking the assumption that nothing is confirmed until it has been provided in writing!
If in doubt, just remember our helpline team is here to help and ready to discuss any matters further with you.