When dealing with an employee who has failed to attend a disciplinary hearing, employers should adhere to the LRA Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.

As a preliminary point, the employee should have been provided with appropriate advance notice of the hearing, along with copies of any evidence that has been gathered during the investigation, to enable the employee to sufficiently prepare for the hearing.

An employee should take all reasonable steps to attend a disciplinary hearing. However, genuine circumstances may arise such as illness or companion unavailability, making their attendance unfeasible. Therefore, the employer should contact the employee to find out the reason(s) for their non-attendance. Although the employee should have informed the employer that they would not be able to attend, the employer should still re-schedule the meeting. Furthermore, if the employee’s failure to attend was due to companion unavailability, a new hearing should be re-scheduled within five working days from the original date.

If the employee fails to attend the rescheduled meeting without good reason, the employer may make a decision in the employee’s absence.  However, employers must exercise caution in proceeding in this way. For example, if the employee is dismissed as a result of the disciplinary proceedings, the employee may be able to bring a successful claim for unfair dismissal if it can be demonstrated that a hearing with the employee present may have resulted in a different outcome.

Therefore, it is best practice for the employer to reschedule a disciplinary hearing at least once where the employee has failed to attend. Beyond that if the reasons for the employee’s absence are unreasonable or not forthcoming, the employer may wish to proceed in the employee’s absence (after weighing up the potential risks of doing so).