Formal counselling, performance management

In seeking review of the decision, the employee submitted that there was no basis for the counselling - rather, it formed part of a broader campaign of harassment by management against them. The employee also submitted that the decision to retain a record for one and half years was harsh and unreasonable.

The delegate of the MPC, in conducting their review, identified that the decision to impose formal counselling was based on comments that the employee had made to a manager within two emails. The MPC was also presented with information from the Agency that the employee had – just two weeks prior to sending the two emails – been issued with informal counselling regarding the need for respectful email communication.

The delegate of the MPC found that the two emails that the employee had sent to the manager were patronising and disdainful of the manager’s leadership capability and ability to perform certain tasks – they were discourteous. Conversely, no evidence was presented by the employee to support, to a reasonable standard, that the counselling was part of a broader campaign of bullying against them or otherwise unreasonable. 

Given that the employee had received informal counselling for similar conduct (and that counselling did not appear to have had a corrective effect) it was, in the view of the delegate of the MPC, reasonable and appropriate to issue the employee with formal counselling.

It was also reasonable to retain a record on the employee’s personnel file as a central record to inform future management action should there be a recurrence of similar behaviour. Such action was also consistent with the Agency’s record keeping obligations. As such, the MPC recommended that the Decision be confirmed.