Query:
One of our employees has made a number of complaints to us, some of which have been assessed as employment related grievances and some of which have been assessed as protected disclosures. All reports are being investigated accordingly. Although the discloser is present in the workplace, they do not appear to be carrying out work that has been allocated to them and relations with line managers have deteriorated since the reports were made. No medical certificates have been submitted by the worker indicating stress or any other form of illness. What can we do in this instance to address the worker’s performance issues?
Response:
As a general principle, if someone is not performing duties allocated to them and has not submitted a medical cert to explain why this is the case, then normal performance management policies and processes would likely apply. However, in cases where parallel processes relating to protected disclosures and/or employment related grievances are ongoing, the matter may be less straightforward to address.
One potential course of action could be to identify a trusted person to mediate a solution between the employee and the employer to ascertain why duties/tasks are not being completed. This person could be a manager, colleague, trade union official or other third party who is seen as a person of trust by both the employee and the employer.
Either way, each case will have to be taken on its own merit and it might be wise to take legal and/or HR advice on this matter.