Your right to bring a colleague to a disciplinary meeting only exists once you ask.

The situation

A head sommelier and restaurant manager was called into a meeting with the two owners straight after a shift, with no warning and no explanation of what it was about. He was dismissed by the end of it. He never asked to bring a colleague or union representative with him, because he had no idea the meeting could end in his dismissal until it was too late to ask.

What the tribunal found

He argued his employer had breached his statutory right to be accompanied under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999The statute that gives workers a right to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing, but only once they actually ask for it. It also sets out related rights, like the right to postpone a h.... The Employment Appeal Tribunal confirmed that right only exists once a worker actually asks for a companion. The law does not require an employer to tell you in advance what a meeting is about, or to warn you that you might be dismissed, however unfair that silence feels. Because he accepted he never made a request, his claim never got off the ground. The tribunal said filling any gap here is Parliament's job.

If your employer calls you into a meeting without saying what it's about, don't assume you're safe just because nobody has mentioned discipline or dismissal. The moment you sense the meeting could go somewhere serious, even partway through it, ask to bring someone with you. The tribunal suggested, without deciding it outright, that a request made once you realise what's really happening might still count, and could be enough to get the meeting paused so your companion can attend.

This right is yours to raise. Your employer is not going to volunteer it. The ACAS Code of PracticeOfficial guidance issued by ACAS on how disciplinary and grievance procedures should be run. It is not law, but tribunals take it into account, and a failure to follow it can result in any award being... says they should tell you what the meeting could lead to and remind you of your right to bring someone, but this case confirms that if they don't, and you don't ask, you have no separate legal claim just for their silence. That silence can still count against your employer if you are later dismissed and bring an unfair dismissalA legal claim you can bring if your employer dismissed you without a fair reason or without following a fair process. You normally need two years of continuous employment to qualify, though some dismi... claim, so keep a note of what you were and were not told.

If you were dismissed after a meeting like this, with no warning and no real chance to ask for support, get advice on whether the whole process was fair. The right to a companion might never have been triggered on its own, but plenty else can still have gone wrong.

For a case where a request was made and refused outright, see our case study on a companion who wasn't allowed to speak. And for how the right to choose your companion can widen for disability reasons, see bringing a family member to a disciplinary hearing.