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Samson Saungweme
Correspondent
CAN you demote an employee as a form of punishment in a disciplinary hearing?
Demotion can be a form of punishment provided you have included demotion in your registered Code of Conduct.
In using demotion to punish, it is important to make sure that there is clear understanding of what is meant by the phase: “Demotion”.
It goes beyond the process of taking an individual from a particular grade and placing him in a grade below that.
It also entails a suitable reduction in the individual’s rate of pay, in order to ensure that the demotion has an element of punishment to it over, and above the loss of status.
There is a tendency for people to think that demotion only relates to status, and the individual employee cannot have his salary reduced.
This is clearly not the position in law, as the Code of Conduct regulations make specific provision for demotion as a form of punishment, and clearly this encompasses demotion in both status and salary.
The level to which you demote obviously must be on basis that it is genuine punishment as opposed to constructive dismissal.
For example, if you demote a manager to a level of say a sweeper in order to induce that person to leave your employment that would be considered a constructive dismissal rather than a legitimate punitive demotion.
Generally speaking, demotion would be seen to be genuine in circumstances where the nature of the movement between grades was probably either a single grade or at the most perhaps two grades downwards.
Anything more than that, I think would be considered to be excessive, and may well be looked at as a form of constructive dismissal.
In deciding upon an appropriate wage or salary on demotion, I believe that one should take into account, not just the grade, but also the level the of service that the individual has had with the company, and then suitably reduce the salary for that particular grade taking into account the employee’s length of service.
It would not be appropriate to say, for an employee with 15 years’ service to be demoted to a grade, and then placed at the minimum wage or salary for that grade.
To move him a down a grade is obviously acceptable, but he then should get some dispensation related to service to distinguish him from someone newly appointed to that particular grade.
This is not a legal requirement, but I believe from a point of view of fairness to the individual, it is more appropriate than placing the individual at the minimum grade.
It is also more likely to be accepted by the individual as legitimate and one hopes would save as an inducement to him to perform better in order that he can move back to his original post with the passage of time.
Some labour officials believe that it is important in terms of a demotion for the demotion to be for a fixed period, and in fact to be at a level of salary that is commensurate with what he was previously earning.
I believe both of these approaches to be incorrect the salary can be reduced and the demotion need not be for any particular period but related to the individual performance.
Samson Saungweme is a Trainer and Human Resources Consultant. He can be contacted on 0718640708 /0776247718 or Email [email protected]
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