During a dispute with an IMC as someone as they were accepting they were no longer part of indymedia as the others in the collective could no longer work with them, they put forward that indymedia adopt something like stated below, in believe that if the case they would have been able to stay. A few people seems attracted to the idea so to give more legimacy to efforts to deal with those that need to be excluded from IMCs, even though how it would be put in practise in form below without totally disabling work of an IMC would remain to be seen. And no effort has been made to adopted such, imcers realising such calls are just an effort of bog down an imc. But some imcs have started to define more what being apart of their imc means.
"DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURE
The cooperative has an obligation to operate a fair disciplinary procedure.
The following disciplinary procedure is operated if the employer has
complaints about the conduct, attendance, timekeeping or job performance of
any employee.
A) A disciplinary sub-committee of the Directors will be established to
investigate the complaint. Investigations will be made fully, but as
quickly as possible. The employee has a right to a short summary of the
nature of the complaint in advance of the first meeting of this
sub-committee unless the employer considers the matter so urgent that such
a statement cannot reasonably be provided (in which case the employee will
be informed at the beginning of the meeting). The employee concerned has
the right to present their case and to be represented or to be accompanied
by a friend. A written record of meetings of the sub-committee and its
decisions will be kept.
B) There are three stages in the disciplinary procedure.
First stage: oral warning or written warning. The employee will be told
what to do about the situation, either verbally or in writing. The warning
will lapse after three months.
Second stage: written warning. If the complaint persists within the period
of the previous warning, the procedure will be repeated. At this stage the
employee is warned in writing that a further breach of discipline will lead
to dismissal. The warning will lapse after a year.
Third stage: dismissal. If there is a further breach of discipline within
the period of the previous warning, the cooperative may decide, using
procedure (x) below, to dismiss the employee.
At each stage of the procedure the employee shall be entitled to a further
short summary of the nature of the complaint, which may be wider or
narrower than that given earlier. Warnings lapse after the fixed periods
of time at each stage.
C) A first disciplinary complaint against an employee shall be treated
using the first step in the procedure, apart from exceptional circumstances
in the case of alleged serious or gross misconduct, when an investigation
at the second or third stage may be initiated. There is no dismissal for
first offence except in the case of gross misconduct. Examples of gross
misconduct are theft, assault or willful breach of confidentiality or any
other deliberate action, which jeopardises the Professional Indemnity of
the co-operative
D) The disciplinary sub-committee shall have power to impose oral and
written warnings for first and second stages offence.
The employee shall have the right to appeal against this decision to the
Directors, by giving written notice of appeal to the Secretary of the
cooperative within seven days of the decision of the disciplinary
sub-committee.
E) At the third stage, the disciplinary sub-committee shall advise the
Directors what disciplinary action, if any, it considers appropriate. The
Directors shall not impose any sanction stronger than that recommended by
the sub-committee, but may choose to impose a lesser penalty or none at
all. The employee shall have the right to appeal to the General Meeting of
members of the cooperative by giving written notice of appeal to the
Secretary of the cooperative within seven days of the decision of the
Directors (in the case of dismissal, using the procedure outlined in clause
(x) below).
F) In cases of alleged serious or gross misconduct, an employee may be
suspended on full pay during the disciplinary procedure or after the
issuing of a Termination Notice, but their right to attend meetings of the
cooperative shall not be affected.
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
This procedure is to be followed if any employee feels they have a
grievance against any other employee, or against the operation or decisions
of the cooperative as a whole, which affects their ability to perform their
job satisfactorily.
A) The complainant shall ask the Directors to select one of their members
to meet with the complainant, to discuss and try to resolve the matter.
B) If no solution can be found, the complainant shall put her/his grievance
to a specially convened sub-committee of the Directors, which will
investigate the matter, bear representations from the people involved and
make a formal proposal for its solution. The complainant and any person
against whom it complaint shall have been made shall have the right to be
represented or to be accompanied by a friend,
C) If the complainant is not satisfied, there is a right of appeal to the
General Meeting of members of the cooperative.
If subsequently the employee is still not satisfied, there is a right of
appeal to an agreed outside arbitrator.
Reference by an employee to another employee in this grievance procedure
shall not construe any form of disciplinary action by the employer against
that second employee, and disciplinary matters may only be raised by the
employer using the procedure laid down in (y) above."
to top