Business owners and employees alike need to be fully aware of current employment laws that act in the interests of both parties. A grey area that received clarification a couple of years ago relates to the audio recording of disciplinary meetings; is it legal and is a good or a bad thing? As taped conversations could be used as evidence in tribunal hearings, the question of whether such recordings should be encouraged or banned has been at the forefront of the minds of human resource professionals throughout the UK.
do you have to request permission to record conversations?
Yes, as an employer should request permission to audio record a disciplinary.
The same goes for the employee too. However, often some employees will secretly record meetings - it's something that is quite common in this day and age, where discreet mobile recording is easier than ever. To break a potential misconception, the fact that the evidence was gathered secretly doesn’t mean that it won’t be allowed. If the Employment Tribunal think that the evidence is still relevant, then it can still be admitted – providing the employer is given the evidence before the hearing, of course.
If you wish for meetings to NOT be recorded, make it clear to all parties from the get-go that recording without consent is not permitted. This can be done by leaving phones outside of the meeting room, switching them off, of leaving them in plain sight.
This debate originally came about off the heels of a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision that secretly-recorded grievance and disciplinary meetings could be admissible as evidence. The case, Punjab National Bank v Gosain, involved an employee recording the discussion between the managers while the employee was out of the room. Employers should be aware of the fact that their comments could eventually be played back during court or tribunal proceedings; what can they do about this?
Business owners should implement an HR department structure whereby a framework for dealing with disciplinary issues and grievances is locked down, which may prevent the risk of managers saying something inappropriate. It is also possible to place a blanket ban on recording meetings within the organisation; should this be the case, it should clearly be stated in the disciplinary procedures.
An alternate approach might be for employers to start openly recording meetings in an effort to control the situation at hand.
The key is to maintain transparency and fair HR practices when it comes to handling employee discipline and grievance issues in the first place.