Appeals
An appeal is the employee's challenge to a sanction. Handled well, it is your cheapest quality control — an internal correction beats an NLC determination every time. The module treats the overturn rate as a signal about decision-making quality, not as an embarrassment to hide (it headlines the dashboard).
How an appeal is lodged
Only the employee lodges, from their portal, while the case sits in Appeal Window:
- The sanction card on the portal shows the deadline — issue date + the appeal window in working days (sanction-type override, else the company default of 7).
- The employee picks a ground — procedural irregularity, new evidence, sanction disproportionate, finding against the evidence, bias/conflict of interest, other — and writes their submission.
- On lodgement the system computes in time / out of time. A late appeal is recorded and flagged, never silently refused — refusing to even record a late appeal looks terrible at the NLC; deciding what to do with it is a human call.
The appeal is automatically routed per the authority matrix in force on the incident date: the configured appeal authority role (which the matrix guarantees outranks the issuer) and/or appeal panel.
Determining an appeal
On the case workspace, Sanction tab → Determine Appeal:
| Outcome | What the system does |
|---|---|
| Dismissed — sanction confirmed | Sanction stands; case closes |
| Sanction reduced / increased | You pick the substituted sanction; a new sanction instance is issued and the original is marked superseded on appeal — both remain on the trail, nothing is edited |
| Finding overturned | The sanction is rescinded; the case returns through Appeal Upheld to Decision for findings to be re-recorded |
| Rehearing ordered | The case returns to Hearing — and the conflict screen now also excludes everyone who sat on the original sitting: a rehearing needs fresh ears |
A written rationale is mandatory — it is what makes the determination defensible.
The two hard rules
- The issuer never determines the appeal against their own decision. The system refuses the determination outright.
- A case cannot close over an appeal. While an appeal awaits determination, Close is refused. Closing early — inside the window, no appeal — requires the employee's written waiver on file, recorded as the closure reason.