Who can be a companion?

An employee can be accompanied by a single companion who is either:

• a trade union official;

• a trade union representative with appropriate experience or training in acting as a companion, and who has been certified in writing by the union; or

• another of the employer’s employees.

There may be an agreement for employees to be accompanied by someone else, such as a partner. If an employee is disabled, an employer may need to consider whether to allow them to be accompanied by someone else such as a disability support worker or a partner. Equally, an employer should make reasonable adjustments if the companion has a disability (see Chapter 7: Arranging the hearing).

It is up to the employee to choose their companion. An employee can ask for a rep from any union, regardless of whether or not the union is recognised, or even whether it has other members in the workplace.

In some very limited circumstances, an employee may be entitled to legal representation at internal hearings. This is most likely to occur if one consequence of the hearing could be a ban preventing the individual from carrying out their chosen profession (Mattu v The University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust [2011] EWHC 2068). Occasionally, an employee has a contractual right to legal representation at internal hearings. Legal representation at internal hearings is very unusual. For more information see the LRD’s Law at work 2012.

The law does not require a union representative to accompany an individual who asks to be accompanied. A member should not pressurise a union rep to attend a meeting. Similarly, work colleagues have the right to act as companions on request, but they are not legally obliged to do so, and they should not be pressurised into so doing.