Disciplinary Time Limit

Question

If an extremely minor incident happened over 12 months ago at work and the new boss wants to make an impression, is he able to take it to a disciplinary hearing even though it was over 12 months ago.

Answer 1

There's no official time limit - he could bring up something that happened 12 years ago if he wanted to.

However if he did decide to take action, I would certainly make the point in the meeting that the fact that your former boss chose to take no action signifies that it couldn't have been that important.

Answer 2

Unfortunately what is being done to you is not uncommon.  At my sister's former job she told us of a story of an employee who had been committing theft through the corporate account for quite sometime. After she began investigating when she took over the department she found he had stolen over 100K in company assets.  The boss decided to just keep an eye on him and take away his company credit card.  Exactly 14 months later or so a new sheriff came into town and he was terminated for the last act he committed.  Although I am certain this case is much more extreme than yours, their is no time limit for whatever the infraction unless you can prove it is some type of retaliatory act under Title VII.

Answer 3

Well if he is the "boss" yes he can.

Answer 4

I take it that the old boss let it go then?.If this incident arose well before your new boss took over ,then it is outside his remit,he was not in a position to give a judgement at the time.You would have a very good case here,should he decide to be silly,to get a nice little earner out of it in front of a tribunal.Your boss has obviously made a veiled reference to it ,probably to judge how you are going to react before he takes the plunge.I would let him know that this will be a matter for an employment tribunal to judge if he proceeds as every boss should start with a new clean slate.If you do have to use the tribunal,do it straight away ,as there is a time limit on it being started,once in action ,a mediator will be appointed for you to settle the matter regarding your damages/claim/reinstatement,it is almost always settled out of court,you will enjoy it.GOOD LUCK.Do not let him make you the one which he uses to stamp his presence on the patch.FIGHT.