Disciplinary Action

A disciplinary action process provides a structured, documented sequence of responses to employee conduct or performance issues — typically progressing from verbal warning through written warning, final written warning, and termination — with each step creating a record that substantiates the organization's response as proportionate and procedurally fair. The most common disciplinary process failure is inconsistency: applying disciplinary steps more rigorously to some employee groups than others, or departing from the documented process for favored employees, creates discrimination claims and union grievances that can overturn otherwise justified terminations. The disciplinary process must also distinguish clearly between performance improvement plans (addressing capability gaps through support and targets) and disciplinary action (addressing conduct breaches through consequences) — combining the two in a single process creates confusion about whether an employee is being helped or warned.