Can a disciplinary issue be reopened without new evidence after its been closed?

[ohyestheydid]

There was an accusation against me of misconduct. My line manager didnt see it as gross misconduct so investigated it herself informally as allowed by the disciplinary process. She resolved the issue to everyones satisfaction, and closed it without issuing any sanction. The whole process remained informal.

A month later, without any new evidence, a higher manager decides the issue should have been dealt with formally and appoints someone else to investigate it and im being questioned about it again.

Are they allowed to do that?

[atticus]

What does the disciplinary policy say?

[ohyestheydid]

What does the disciplinary policy say?

It says if new evidence is raised during or after a disciplinary or appeal hearing further investigation may be required.

But there is no new evidence, It's just a manager deciding the issue should have been dealt with formally. There is no procedure for that.

[atticus]

tagging ULA

[ULA]

Sorry to ask the question but how do you know that there is no new evidence?

Could the person who made the allegation now not be happy about the outcome and raised it again?

Also appreciating you may very well have not carried out an act of (gross) misconduct, it may be felt that it was a serious enough situation to warrant a formal process rather than an informal one (even though the disciplinary process allows this) and that someone other than your line manager should have conducted the investigation?

I am just posing the questions as considerations of why this matter is now being reinvestigated.

[ohyestheydid]

Sorry to ask the question but how do you know that there is no new evidence?

I asked and they told me.

[ohyestheydid]

Could the person who made the allegation now not be happy about the outcome and raised it again?

I don't know that but it was their outcome, surely they can't keep going at it if they later change their mind?

[ohyestheydid]

Also appreciating you may very well have not carried out an act of (gross) misconduct, it may be felt that it was a serious enough situation to warrant a formal process rather than an informal one (even though the disciplinary process allows this) and that someone other than your line manager should have conducted the investigation?

If that's the case then that's on them, they should have done it properly the first time. It's not like they didn't know what was going on, my line manager informed them of what was going on every step of the way.

What if we get a different outcome this time and then a few weeks down the line another manager doesn't like that outcome and decides to reopen it again; if this is allowed there would be no finality and the accusation would be permanently hanging over you.

[ULA]

My response was to look at possible considerations as to why the manager would want to reopen the investigation.

I would suggest you need to speak to HR and/or have you spoken to your immediate manager who carried out the original investigation?