General arguments to make in disciplinaries
The choice of argument will obviously depend on the particular allegations being made. It is important to concentrate on the strongest arguments — the ones that could make a real difference to the outcome. Possible general lines of argument include:
• failure to draw a rule to the worker’s attention;
• failure to provide training;
• failure of management to apply a rule consistently, giving a false sense of security that it will not be applied, or that it will not lead to dismissal; and
• an argument that a rule should not be rigidly applied in this case because of personal circumstances.