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AF33
09-11-2011, 09:02 AM
Hi I'm new to this forum and new to my role as a sole HR person so would appreciate people's thoughts on the following situation:

We have an employee that has been working in the warehouse and a few weeks into the job the person told us they have a back problem. The employee was not given a position description to outline the requirements of the role, e.g. heavy lifting. We only give tasks which can be completed without further injury although it puts more pressure on the other staff. The work the employee is doing has mistakes which cause re-work. The employee was counselled about their performance 2 months ago which improved for a short period but has dropped off again. We have planned another formal meeting and expect it to be a 1st written warning.

There's not a lot of processes or policies in place at the moment e.g. pre-existing injury forms, everyone gets a PD for their role, policies easily available to staff. Also, it's a non-unionised environment.

Here's my questions/issues:
1. Do we have to offer her a support person to attend the meeting? As I understand it, we shouldn't refuse a support person if they ask
2. Is 4 weeks a reasonable timeframe to improve performance in terms of quality and speed with the work the employee can do, in this type of role?
3. Should we go to a 2nd, then 3rd & final written warning before we dismiss the employee, or go straight to a final warning after this one?
4.Is there anything we can do about the fact that the employee can't perform some key requirements of the role, given they weren't provided with a PD, and we didn't ask if they had any injuries?

Thanks!

HeyPete
09-11-2011, 12:08 PM
Certainly is a tricky situation, and I'd be looking at the basics.

You are performance managing, but what performance are you managing? A poor performer will fail to meet performance standards that have been set for the position, or fail to satisfy the orginsations requirements.

The question is have standards been set for the employee? Do they know exactly what is expected from them?

Assuming you have clarified all that, and you are asking them to attend a performance management meeting, yes I would invite them to bring a support person or a witness.

There is no hard and fast rule about monitoring period an review dates, nor is there about the number of warnings required.

There doesn’t seem to be any unlawful activity going on, so there will be no unlawful dismissal claim, and there are no general protections issues either, so no general protections claim.

What you are trying to do here is avoid an unfair dismissal claim. Remember under the FWA the employee needs to work with the company for at least 6 months before they can access unfair dismissal.

Qld IR Consultant
09-11-2011, 12:51 PM
Answering your questions directly:

1. yes you do. legislation requires you give them the opportunity to have someone present. Don't assume they know they can, offer it.
2. Yes it is a reasonable time.
3. multiple warnings is an urban myth. 1 written warning is sufficient as long as you can display you have followed due process eg, support person, additional coaching/mentoring etc
4. It would be more beneficial to display that you have given the employee every opportunity to fully understand the requirements and expectations of the role, and have at least given them reasonable time to rectify under-performance.

It is not up to the employer to ask every new employee if they have a medical condition which will restrict them in the performance of their duties. It would have been their responsibility to disclose that given they would have known that physical work would be required in a warehouse situation.

1 thing you have to be mindful of is that the onus is on you as the HR and employer rep to display due process, its not up to the employee to display that you didn't. All they need to do is to argue that their dismissal was unfair, harsh and unreasonable and the reasons why they think that. In other words you have more work to do than they do.

AF33
09-11-2011, 01:43 PM
Thank you so much for your responses, they're very helpful.

I'm thinking of putting the person on a Performance Improvement Plan that way we can clear up the tasks and standard required and put in some timeframes for review of performance.

belinda
10-11-2011, 03:32 PM
You mentioned something along the lines of the person being a few weeks into the role? Are they within 3 mth probation/ 6 mth qualifing period? Or have they actually been working for longer?

Ensure that your performance management process is along the lines of the performance issues and not the back problems and you show due process, etc.

Tdsal2
08-12-2011, 10:25 AM
I agree with this post - and would add that you should keep any injury issues totally seperate from work performance, even if you think conversations are well intentioned.