Progressive Disciplinary Action Protocol
Dow Aero, LLC (“Company”) enforces disciplinary action as any number of options used to correct unacceptable employee activities. While this protocol is designed to provide a structured approach to progressive disciplinary action, in an effort to improve and prevent recurrences of undesirable incidents, the actual course of disciplinary action can occur in no particular order as necessary and may take the form of:
Informal warning;
Formal warning, with or without suspension, pay rate decrease, job title adjustment, and/or employment status change; or
Termination of employment.
Any course of disciplinary action will be determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on the facts of each situation and the nature of the offense. In any case, the employee’s direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor, the Company’s Human Resources (“HR”) department, and any other appropriate Company management or involved parties may initiate and/or participate in processing an employee’s disciplinary action when necessary. Some of the factors that will be considered are whether the offense is repeated despite:
Coaching, counseling, and/or training;
Employee's work record; and
Impact the employee’s issue has on the organization.
Nothing in this section provides any contractual rights regarding employee discipline or counseling, nor should anything in this protocol be read or construed as modifying or altering the at-will employment relationship between the Company and its employees.
Step 1 - Informal Warning
The first step to progressive disciplinary action creates an opportunity for the direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor to bring attention of an employee’s unacceptable conduct. An informal warning shall generally be presented to an employee by their direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor, whether:
Verbally
Person-to-person meeting or video/audio call.
Written
Email, instant/text message, or letter.
Employees should generally be advised of the following when given an informal warning:
Reason(s) for the informal warning;
Date and time of incident(s) that lead to the informal warning;
Reminder of any notable prior issues; and
Details on how to prevent further disciplinary action.
An employee should generally be notified of an informal warning within five (5) business days of an incident(s).
The direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor is expected to record their version of the situation which resulted in an employee receiving an informal warning. Any notable interactions they have when notifying their employee of an informal warning should also be recorded. These accounts should be recorded within the employee’s Notes tab on the Company’s Human Resources Information System (HRIS), currently BambooHR, within five (5) business days after a notice has been presented to an employee; any updates should be recorded as soon as possible. When an update is available, a new note should generally be created (in lieu of editing a previous note) to ensure that the original timestamp for a previous entry remains unchanged.
Any other individual involved in developing an informal warning case, or directly notifying an employee of an informal warning, may also record their description of the incident(s), notable interactions with the employee, and/or any available updates. If an involved individual does not have access to the employee’s Notes tab, they can electronically submit (e.g. email, instant/text message, etc.) their accounts of the situation to either the employee’s direct manager or supervisor, or the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department. The following should be appended at the top of a note entry when the text was created by someone other than themselves:
The following unmodified statement was created by FIRST&LASTNAME and submitted on MM/DD/YYYY.
Should an involved individual’s statement need to be modified, it shall be with the express written consent of both the involved individual and the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department. The Company’s HR department shall then be responsible for uploading the modified statement with an explanation of the changes.
An informal warning may be repeated as necessary, but a formal warning should be considered when an abundance of issues exist, persistent problems continue, or upon occurrence of a serious situation.
Step 2 - Formal Warning
The second progressive disciplinary action step is handled similarly to an informal warning, with the inclusion of documentation that is to be completed by the:
Employee’s Direct/Indirect manager or Supervisor;
Company’s Human Resources (HR) department; and
Employee that attributed unacceptable conduct.
As with the first step to progressive disciplinary action, the employee’s direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor initiates a formal warning by bringing to attention of an employee’s unacceptable conduct, whether:
Verbally
Person-to-person meeting or video/audio call.
Written
Email, instant/text message, or letter.
Again, employees should generally be advised of the following ahead of an impending formal warning:
Reason(s) for the impending formal warning;
Date and time of incident(s) that is leading to an impending formal warning;
Reminder of any notable prior issues; and
Details on how to prevent further disciplinary action.
An employee should generally be notified of an impending formal warning within five (5) business days of an incident(s). An employee should also receive a formal warning generally within five (5) business days of notice being provided.
The document to be used for a formal warning is called a Formal Warning Record. This legal document is initiated by the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department, upon notice, with sections and fields being completed as appropriate by the employee’s direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor, the Company’s HR department, and the employee themselves. Once initiated, the Formal Warning Record is electronically issued, processed, and completed within the Company’s Human Resources Information System (“HRIS”), BambooHR, as follows:
The employee’s direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor first receives the document and processes as follows:
The employee’s full name, job title, and employee identification number, along with the direct manager or immediate supervisor’s full name, are automatically filled.
Required to add the employee’s direct manager or immediate supervisor’s job title and employee identification number.
May not necessarily be the person’s information completing the document.
The employee’s direct manager or immediate supervisor’s job title and employee identification number may be found within the People tab of the Company’s HRIS or requested from the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department.
Include the location, along with the date and time, if a single incident, or appropriately mark either of the checkboxes for incidents that occurred in multiple locations and/or dates/times.
If either the Multiple Locations or Multiple Date and Time checkboxes are selected, explain in the Summary of Incident(s) section as identified below.
Identify how the employee was, or is to be, initially notified of an impending formal warning;
If the employee has not been notified of an impending formal warning before confirming signature, notify the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department immediately after submitting.
Choose the appropriate reason(s) for the formal warning;
Supply a summarization of the incident(s) that is resulting in a formal warning;
Can use the Supplemental Information section on page five (5) if additional space is needed; be sure to mark the Summary of Incident(s) checkbox.
Any content created for this section should be saved outside of this document, and remain accessible, until completed by the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department and the employee.
Outline expected improvements and how to avoid further disciplinary action through a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP);
Can use the Supplemental Information section on page five (5) if additional space is needed; be sure to mark the Performance Improvement Plan checkbox.
Any content created for this section should be saved outside of this document, and remain accessible, until completed by the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department and the employee.
Reads the document’s Formal Warning Record Terms and Conditions, with primary focus on the second paragraph.
The document’s initiator provides their electronic signature (either drawn or typed), job title, printed name (first and last name), and the current date.
Once the employee’s direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor confirms their signature, the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department shall receive the document and process as follows:
Reviews the document and performs the following as necessary:
Confirms details about unacceptable conduct are included and accurate;
Consults with the employee, direct or indirect managers or immediate supervisor, or any other involved party (whether direct or indirect) to corroborate incident(s);
Examines supporting evidence; and
Verifies that the formal warning is justified.
The Company’s HR department may reject a formal warning in-full or in-part, with reason provided to the document’s initiator.
Initiates and records the Disciplinary Action Case Number on all pages.
Formatted as HR-DISXXXX.
Provides a Human Resources Statement as appropriate.
Can use the Supplemental Human Resources Statement section on page six (6) if additional space is needed.
Any content created for this section should be saved outside of this document, and remain accessible, until completed by the employee.
The Company’s Human Resources (HR) department representative provides their electronic signature (either drawn or typed), job title, printed name (first and last name), and the current date.
Once the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department representative confirms their signature, the employee shall receive the document and process as follows within two (2) working days of receiving:
Adequately reviews the entire document until comprehended, with an emphasis on fully understanding the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).
Includes reading the document’s Formal Warning Record Terms and Conditions, with primary focus on the first paragraph.
May provide an optional Employee Statement to formally explain their accounts of the incident(s).
The Company’s Human Resources (HR) department shall review any provided employee statement and determine whether information provided can justify an appeal (explained in the Appeals Process section below).
Can use the Supplemental Employee Statement section on page five (5) if additional space is needed.
The employee provides their electronic signature (either drawn or typed) and the current date.
An employees signature simply acknowledges receipt of the document and that they are to adhered to the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP); employees are not expressing their guilt or innocence regarding the incident(s), but are to follow expectations to avoid further disciplinary action.
Includes engaging in other unacceptable behavior or conduct that is outside the scope of the document.
While a Refusal to Sign checkbox exist, an employee who choose this option, in lieu of signature, or engages in repeat incident(s) or other unacceptable conduct may be subject to additional disciplinary action, up to termination of employment.
Again, it is highly recommended that the Formal Warning Record’s initiator maintain a typed copy of their Summary of Incident(s) and the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) textual content incase their submission is for example, initially rejected. Additionally, the Formal Warning Record includes a statement indicating that the employee may be subject to additional disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, if immediate and sustained improvement is not made; to avoid conflicting statements this should not be readdressed within a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), whether in-full or in-part.
Upon all required parties completing the Formal Warning Record, and once finalized by the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department, it shall be stored under the Disciplinary Action folder of the employee’s Documents tab, which is within their employee profile on the Company’s Human Resources Information System (HRIS), currently BambooHR. This record will remain accessible to the employee throughout their employment, their active (or previous if terminated) direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor, and appropriate Company HR department personnel. The Company’s HR department shall also record the incident in the employee’s Disciplinary Action table, which is located within the employee’s Job tab of the Company’s HRIS.
It is important that the direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor, along with any other involved parties, record details that may have not been appropriate to be provided within the Formal Warning Record (e.g. witnesses, opinions, etc.). Any notable interactions that occurred when notifying an employee of an impending informal warning should also be recorded. These accounts should be recorded within the employee’s Notes tab on the Company’s HRIS, within five (5) business days after an incident has occurred or after a notice has been presented to an employee; any updates should be recorded as soon as possible. When an update is available, a new note should generally be created (in lieu of editing a previous note) to ensure that the original timestamp for a previous entry remains unchanged.
Any other individual involved in developing a formal warning case, or directly notifying an employee of an impending formal warning, may also record their description of the incident(s), notable interactions with the employee, and/or any available updates. If an involved individual does not have access to the employee’s Notes tab, they can electronically submit (e.g. email, instant/text message, etc.) their accounts of the situation to either the employee’s direct manager or supervisor, or the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department. The following should be appended at the top of a note entry when the text was created by someone other than themselves:
The following unmodified statement was created by FIRST&LASTNAME and submitted on MM/DD/YYYY.
Should an involved individual’s statement need to be modified, it shall be with the express written consent of both the involved individual and the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department. The Company’s HR department shall then be responsible for uploading the modified statement with an explanation of the changes.
A formal warning may be repeated as necessary, with a combination of additional disciplinary action(s) as appropriate; to be explained in the following subsections.
Formal Warning with Additional Disciplinary Action
In situations where an employee’s negative conduct has been repetitive, or is considered serious, additional disciplinary action can be applied to a formal warning. Additional disciplinary action includes:
Permanent or temporary reduction of salary/hourly pay rate;
Job title adjustment; and
Employment classification change.
These additional actions shall be used in unison together when appropriate. That is, when a pay rate is reduced to a level outside of the employee’s current position, the position shall also be altered. To confirm that additional actions are used in unison together appropriately, the Formal Warning Record’s initiator should contact the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department to determined the appropriate selections. A Formal Warning Record, with Additional Disciplinary Action, shall be rejected by the Company’s HR department when the additional action does not align correctly with documented job title and pay structures.
Suspension
Some circumstances are so problematic and harmful that the most effective action may be the temporary removal of the employee from the workplace. A suspension may be processed in one of two methods:
Immediate, with a Formal Warning applied upon an employee’s return; or
In combination with a Formal Warning, as an additional disciplinary action.
When an immediate suspension is necessary to ensure the safety of the employee or others, or to remain in compliance with statutory or regulatory requirements, the employee’s direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor may collect a digital or hand-writable version of the following documents from the Company’s Human Resources Information System (HRIS), currently BambooHR.
Immediate Suspension Record; or
Safety Violation Suspension Record (Coming Soon).
These records can be downloaded by any manager or supervisor level personnel (with direct reports) from the Discipline folder within the Files tab of the Company’s HRIS main navigation bar; this capability is currently not available on the mobile app. While a Drug and/or Alcohol Violation Suspension Record does exist, it may only be administered by the Company's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Drug Abatement Designated Employer Representative (DER).
Select here for more information about the Company’s Drug and Alcohol policies and procedures >
When a suspension is included as an additional disciplinary action on an employee’s Formal Warning Record, it may be documented and processed in a similar manner as identified in the Formal Warning section and the Formal Warning with Additional Disciplinary Action subsection above.
In the most serious of situations where an employee has committed or is showing potential tendencies of committing an act of violence, or that otherwise is perceived to be a danger to themselves or others, the employee may be removed from duty without completing an Immediate Suspension Record or Formal Warning Record. The Company’s Human Resources department should be made aware of a situation that requires this action as soon as possible. Where appropriate, law-enforcement can be notified and present when the employee is notified to immediately vacate the premises; this interaction should generally occur privately (i.e. the employee should be called to a private area where the law enforcement officer is present), but can occur publicly in the person’s immediate work-area if necessary. Likewise, an employee may be allowed to depart the area at the end of the shift with no announced recourse for their serious actions before notice is provided.
Suspensions shall generally proceed without pay, and be made in full-day increments, that are consistent with federal, state, and local wage and hour employment laws. Employees may not substitute or use any accrued paid time off (PTO) in lieu of an unpaid suspension.
It is especially important to consult with the Company’s Human Resources department before suspending an employee when absolutely possible, as the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) has numerous requirements on performing such an action. The Company’s Human Resources (HR) department is an important resource in this situation on providing specific guidance to ensure that an employee’s suspension is administered without potentially jeopardizing FLSA requirements.
Pay may be restored to a suspended employee in the event an investigation of the incident or infraction absolves the employee of wrongdoing, whether in-full or in-part.
Step 3 - Recommendation for Termination of Employment
The last and most serious progressive disciplinary action step is a recommendation to terminate employment. Normally, the Company shall attempt to exercise the progressive nature of this protocol before proceeding with any recommendation to terminate employment, including;
Issuing informal warnings; and
Issuing formal warnings.
With additional disciplinary action included where appropriate; involves:
Pay decreases;
Job title adjustments;
Employment classification changes; and/or
Suspensions.
Notwithstanding, the Company reserves the right to combine and skip steps depending on the circumstances of each situation and the nature of the offense. Furthermore, employees may be terminated without prior council or disciplinary action. Any recommendation to terminate employment shall receive prior approval from the highest ranking Human Resources (HR) official at the Company, and preferably along with the employee’s direct manager or supervisor, before commencing.
Select here for more information on a termination of employment event >
It is important that a direct/indirect manager or immediate supervisor, along with any other involved parties, record details leading up to an upon the decision to terminate an employee. Any notable interactions that occurred when notifying an employee of their termination of employment should also be recorded. These accounts should be recorded within the employee’s Notes tab on the Company’s HRIS, ideally no later than on the date of an employee’s termination; any updates should be recorded as soon as possible. When an update is available, a new note should generally be created (in lieu of editing a previous note) to ensure that the original timestamp for a previous entry remains unchanged.
Any other individual involved in a recommendation for termination case, or directly notifying an employee of a termination of their employment, may also record their description of the incident(s), notable interactions with the employee, and/or any available updates. If an involved individual does not have access to the employee’s Notes tab, they can electronically submit (e.g. email, instant/text message, etc.) their accounts of the situation to either the employee’s direct manager or supervisor, or the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department. The following should be appended at the top of a note entry when the text was created by someone other than themselves:
The following unmodified statement was created by FIRST&LASTNAME and submitted on MM/DD/YYYY.
Should an involved individual’s statement need to be modified, it shall be with the express written consent of both the involved individual and the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department. The Company’s HR department shall then be responsible for uploading the modified statement with an explanation of the changes.
Conduct Not Subject to Progressive Disciplinary Action
Illegal activities, theft, substance abuse, intoxication, serious safety violations, along with fighting or other acts of violence are just a few examples of what is not subject to progressive disciplinary action and that may result in an immediate termination of employment. Where appropriate, such behavior may be reported to law enforcement authorities.
Appeals
Employees will have the opportunity to present information that they may use to dispute disciplinary action. If an employee receives an informal warning, they may submit a written explanation (e.g. email, instant/text message, etc.) to the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department. If an employee receives a formal warning, they may record their explanation of the situation within the Employee Statement section of the Formal Warning Record; upon receiving a completed Formal Warning Record, the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department shall make a prompt determination on whether the disciplinary action case is to remain open or be closed.
The purpose of an inclusion for a disciplinary action appeal is to allow an employee to provide further insight into extenuating circumstances that may have contributed to their perceived unacceptable conduct, while allowing for an equitable solution. If an employee’s appeal is confirmed, the scope of the informal or formal warning can be reduced in-full or in-part. If additional disciplinary action (i.e. pay rate reduction, job title adjustment, employment classification changed, and/or suspension) is successfully reduced and or removed based on an appeal, the restoration of any missed pay shall be made as soon as possible and any job title adjustment or employment classification change history shall be removed or altered in the employee’s profile within the Company’s Human Resources information System (HRIS), currently BambooHR.
Recordkeeping
Once a Formal Warning Record has been completed by the record’s initiator, a Company Human Resources (HR) department representative, and the employee, the record becomes immediately available to the employee within their profile on the Company’s Human Resources information System (HRIS), currently BambooHR. This record will initially be placed within the Signed Documents folder, which can be found under the employee’s Documents tab. Once the Company’s HR department has reviewed the completed record, the Formal Warning Record will be renamed, with the date added, and moved to the employee’s Disciplinary Records folder.
Any Formal Warning Record not completed by an employee, whether due to refusal or termination, shall be gathered and downloaded by the Company’s Human Resources (HR) department as-is. Using a portable document format (PDF) editing solution, the Company’s HR department shall add a mark within the “Refused to Sign” checkbox and provide an explanation within the Human Resources Statement section, before reloading the record back into the appropriate location within the Company’s HRIS.
The employee’s direct/indirect managers and immediate supervisor shall have access to the employee’s Formal Warning Record for as long as the employee remains actively, or was terminated, under their direct or indirect chain of command until suitable to remove in accordance with statutory and regulatory retention requirements have been met. Appropriate Company HR department personnel shall continue to retain access to an employee’s Formal Warning Record throughout the full term of their employment with the Company and until suitable to remove the record in accordance with statutory and regulatory retention requirements have been met. The Company’s HR department is solely responsible for deleting the Formal Warning record when deemed appropriate.
Finally, any recorded entries to an employee’s Disciplinary Action table, located within their profile’s Job tab of the Company’s HRIS, shall be kept for as long as an employee’s profile remains available. Likewise, any recorded notes shall be kept for as long as an employee’s profile remains available within the Company’s HRIS.