It is advisable to do so. It is particularly important that employees have an opportunity to state their case at a meeting. Do not assume that you can afford to be more casual with employees with less than one year's service. They are entitled to the same minimum disciplinary procedural standards (a written statement of the problem, a meeting, and an opportunity to appeal) as everyone else. They will not be entitled to sue for automatically unfair dismissal because of a breach of the minimum disciplinary standards, unless they have at least one year's service. However, they may be able to sue for automatically unfair dismissal if one of the exceptions to the general rule requiring a year's service applies (see question 14), and there is no minimum service requirement for a claim of discrimination.
