Fundamentally, if the employment relationship has ended, you cannot compel a former employee to attend any disciplinary hearing. You could of course choose to continue with disciplinary proceedings, but there may be little practical benefit of doing so. A potential situation where the employer may wish to continue with the disciplinary hearing may be where the findings result in referrals being made to professional bodies: in this case, the employer may wish to ensure that the employee is aware of this when inviting them to the hearing to ensure they have been given every opportunity to be involved in the process. If the employee refuses to attend the hearing, an employer could technically proceed in their absence.

If the employee has already left employment, a finding at a disciplinary hearing that the employee would have been dismissed will generally have little practical effect: this will not change the original reason for termination of employment.  However, it may be that the employer can disclose the fact that disciplinary proceedings were pending or had not been completed at the time of termination as this would still be in line with the employer’s duty to the subject and the recipient of the reference to take reasonable care to ensure the information it contains is true, accurate and fair, and not misleading.