How should we categorise disciplinary offences?
There is a big difference between poor timekeeping and selling an employer’s secrets or stealing its computers. You could classify some offences (for example, poor timekeeping, smoking in prohibited areas, less serious breaches of health and safety rules) as misconduct, and some (for example, violence, drunkenness, sexual harassment) as gross misconduct which merits instant dismissal — which, however, must also be implemented through the correct procedures (see section on Gross Misconduct). You might also want to include another category for repeated misconduct (for example, persistent poor timekeeping).