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.