An employer may impose a disciplinary penalty for an employee's violation of certain duties. Practice shows that this is a good means of disciplining employees who are not in managerial positions. These groups of employees usually take the disciplinary penalty as a warning and will be wary of further violations. 

A disciplinary penalty is usually an inadequate measure for employees in senior positions, such as managers. Managers often appeal against disciplinary penalties to courts. The risk of litigation exists regardless of whether the penalty was justified and imposed fairly. This usually results in an escalation of conflict, termination of employment, and subsequent long-running and costly litigation.

An employer may achieve an effect similar to a disciplinary penalty, but without the risk of litigation, by having an informal disciplinary conversation with the employee. The process of conducting such a conversation cannot resemble the procedure of imposing a penalty, and its summary, e.g. in an e-mail, cannot be put in the employee's personal file. 

Find more in the PRO HR February 2022.