It is the employer’s duty to establish and implement a Code of Conduct for employees at the work place and to have disciplinary policies and procedures to guide the Conduct of employees. It is also the obligation of an employer to make these policies known.

The employer should also ensure that these policies are applied uniformly to employees of the same situation or circumstance. (Rule 11(1) of the Code of Good Practice Rules, GN 42 of 2007).

The employer can use various measures including counselling, verbal warnings, written warnings, grievance handling mechanisms, disciplinary hearings and/or finally termination. (Rule 11 (4) of the Code of Good Practice Rules, GN 42 of 2007).

The employee needs to be given a chance to be heard in an informal meeting before a warning letter is issued. In this meeting, the employee may have a representative present. The manager considers the statement of the employee before deciding whether or not to issue the warning. (Item 3(1) of the Guidelines for Disciplinary, Incapacity and Incompatibility policy and procedure in the Schedule of the Code of Good Practice Rules, GN 42 of 2007).

Should the employee not sign this warning letter, a witness present may attest that s/he was issued with this warning.

The purpose of a warning is to notify the employee that a further offence of a similar nature may result in more serious disciplinary actions. (Rule 11 (5) of the Code of Good Practice Rules, GN 42 of 2007)

An employee, if dissatisfied with the warning letter may write an appeal within 5 working days to the next level of management higher than the manager who issued the warning. (Item 3 (4), (5), (6) and (7) of the Guidelines for Disciplinary, Incapacity and Incompatibility policy and procedure in the Schedule of the Code of Good Practice Rules, GN 42 of 2007).

This depends on an employer’s policy and code of conduct. However, the offenses listed in the Code of Good Practice that may result in a warning are:

Late for work and other time keeping offences, unauthorized absence for up to 5 days, failure to carry out reasonable instructions, doing unauthorized private work at the workplace, causing damage or loss to property, misuse or neglect or employer’s property, unacceptable behavior towards clients, employees and others and/or general offences of organizational rules.

Written warnings and final written warnings should be kept in an employee’s personal file and should remain in operation for six months (Item 9(2) of the Guidelines for Disciplinary, Incapacity and Incompatibility policy and procedure in the Schedule of the Code of Good Practice Rules, GN 42 of

A warning letter may be issued by the employee’s supervisor or manager. (Item 3(1) of the Guidelines for Disciplinary, Incapacity and Incompatibility policy and procedure in the Schedule of the Code of Good Practice Rules, GN 42 of 2007)