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Legal to say nothing. Right to say nothing?

ended 04. September 2026

You can take a colleague or a union rep into a disciplinary meeting. But an appeal tribunal has now confirmed your employer doesn't have to tell you that. The right only switches on if you ask for it.

The case is Wolfe v Taka Mayfair Ltd, decided in July 2026. Leonardo Wolfe was a head sommelier, about a month into the job. He was called into a meeting, told nothing about what it was for, and dismissed on the spot. He hadn't asked to bring anyone, because he didn't know what he was walking into.

The tribunal said the law is clear. You have to ask. He didn't, so the right never applied. 

Here's the part being left out of the headlines. The same judgment warned that saying nothing can still make a dismissal unfair. The ACAS Code says employers should always tell people. Ignore the Code and a tribunal can add 25 per cent to the payout. So you can be right on the technicality and still lose.

Employers do get caught on this. Just not for keeping quiet. Refuse the companion someone has asked for, and you're in trouble. In one case a bus driver was refused his chosen union rep, won his claim, and was awarded £2.

Ask and get refused, you have a case. Never know to ask, you have nothing.

All of this lands while the rules are being rewritten. Acas is consulting on a new disciplinary and grievance Code, the first proper update since 2009. It closes on 23 September 2026. Acas reckons formal disciplinaries cost employers £2.36 billion a year.

A right nobody has to point at is a fire exit with no sign above it. It's there. It works. In a panic, you'll walk straight past it.

Employers, put it in the invite letter. One line. It costs you nothing.

We'd like your views:

  • Should employers have to tell people about this right, or is it on adults to know their own rights before they walk in?
  • Is the honest reason this rule survives that it suits employers? A frightened person on their own is a cheaper meeting than one with a union rep in it.
  • Employer-side advisers are already selling this as good news for business. Is that responsible advice, or coaching people to keep quiet and hope?
  • £2 for getting it wrong. Does that tell employers anything other than "don't bother"?
  • Would you tell a friend to ask for a companion, knowing it marks their card as difficult?

 


 

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Kate UnderwoodVerified
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
Peter Done is right on the law and wrong on the job. The tribunal did say the right only kicks in if you ask. It also said that failing to tell people "may have other consequences for an employer, for example, in the context of an unfair dismissal complaint." Guess which half made the headline.
Telling someone they can bring a colleague costs one line in a letter. Dressing that up as optional isn't legal insight, it's a nudge to stay quiet and hope the frightened person opposite doesn't know any better.
"Not legally required" is the lowest bar there is. Plenty of things aren't required. If your disciplinary only holds up because the employee was in the dark, it wasn't a process, it was an ambush.
Put it in the invite letter. One line. If that feels like too much to give away, ask yourself what you think you're protecting.
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Editor
Kelly SmallcombeVerified
Fractional Chief People Officer at Meliorem HR Consultancy
If you're not flagging the right to be accompanied, ask yourself why. A good employer has nothing to hide. Calling this "good news for business" gets it backwards, what's actually good for business is an employment relationship built on trust. Refuse someone a companion and gamble that it won't cost you, and you might spend the next three years finding out it did. £2.36 billion a year in disciplinary costs for employers, and employers are still treating basic fairness as optional. That's not strategic. That's expensive.