An incurable problem

An employee was found to have bullied and been unprofessional towards their colleagues. The investigation made other findings about inaccurate attendance records, misuse of resources during a work trip and that the applicant was a ‘vexatious complainant’.

Our initial review identified significant issues with the investigation conducted by an external investigator. There was no evidence the agency had supervised the process, including making sure the employee was afforded procedural fairness.

In addition to procedural issues, many of the findings were not supported by evidence. For example, the finding the employee had made a vexatious complaint was not supported by the agency’s own policy or met its definition of vexatious.

Given the significant deficiencies, the MPC met with the agency’s representatives before proceeding with a final report. This meeting was to give our preliminary view that, due to the volume and scope of the flaws we proposed to recommend setting the decision aside. After a useful and constructive discussion, the agency representative withdrew the breach and subsequent sanction decision.