Can We Suspend an Employee? The Question Managers Ask Too Late

Handbooks describe suspension as a “neutral act.” Tribunals are increasingly unimpressed by that phrase, and so are employees sent home in front of their colleagues.

Suspending without genuinely considering alternatives can breach the implied term of trust and confidence — opening a constructive dismissal claim before you have investigated the original allegation at all.

Ask four questions first. Is there a real risk of evidence being tampered with, witnesses influenced, or harm to others? Could a change of duties, site or reporting line achieve the same protection? How long will it realistically last? Who will be told, and what exactly?

Get the letter right. Acas recommends telling the employee that suspension does not mean you have decided they did anything wrong. Confirm full pay continues, what they may and may not do, their point of contact, and the expected timescale. Then review it. Suspensions that drift for months become evidence of unfairness in themselves.

Northern Ireland. NI retains the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure Great Britain abolished, alongside the LRA Code. A GB template applied unmodified in Belfast can be non-compliant, not merely imprecise.traverssmith+1

Considering suspending someone this week? Speak to us before the letter goes out. 0121 256 8043.