Regarding the right to accompaniment at meetings: Do we have to let mothers attend meetings? For discipline, performance, stress consultations etc we take on quite a few apprentices and their mothers always like to be involved and more often than not they become very challenging in these meetings. Can we limit to trade union or fellow employee even for apprentices under 18 years of age?

The right to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance meeting is laid out in Article 12(3) of the Employment Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1999. The statutory right is for workers to be accompanied by a colleague, a trade union representative or an official employed by a trade union.

In practice, workers will often request that they can be accompanied by someone who does not fit into any of the above legal categories. Sometimes they may request to bring their partner or a family member not employed by the employer. Employers are perfectly at liberty to refuse such requests but we would advise that careful consideration is given to any request by a worker, before it is refused,