1 Oliver Hoppe has been working at Hoopers and Henderson accountancy practice for eighteen months. He feels that
he fits in well, especially with his colleagues and has learnt a lot from them. However, he feels that the rules and
regulations governing everyday activities and time keeping are not clear.
Oliver does not get on well with his line manager, David Morgan. There appears to be a clash of personalities and
reluctance on David Morgan’s part to deal with the icy atmosphere between them after David was asked by one of
the accounting partners to give Oliver a job. For the past three months Oliver has gone to lunch with his fellow workers
and always returned to work with them or before them. In fact they all have returned to work about ten minutes late
on several previous occasions. After the third time, Oliver was called into David Morgan’s office and given an oral
warning about his time keeping.
Oliver was not permitted to argue his case and none of the other staff who returned late were disciplined in this way.
On the next occasion the group was late returning from lunch, David Morgan presented Oliver with a written warning
about his time keeping.
Yesterday, Oliver was five minutes late returning to work. His colleagues returned after him. David Morgan gave Oliver
notice and told him to work until the end of the week and then collect his salary, the necessary paperwork and to
leave the practice.
There is a partner responsible for human resources. Oliver has come to see the partner to discuss the grievance
procedures against David Morgan for his treatment and about what Oliver regards as unfair dismissal.
Required:
(a) Describe the six stages of a formal disciplinary procedure that an organisation such as Hoopers and
Henderson should have in place. (12 marks)
