Ever
thought someone wasn’t telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth in a disciplinary meeting? How do you get the truth from that person?
Well... in South Africa we have discovered you are able to use lie detectors in
disciplinary meetings!
It
certainly is different to our ‘reasonable doubt’ judgement when looking into
disciplinary matters.
With
theft, fraud, blackmail and sexual harassment cases, lie detectors are brought
into disciplinary meetings which in South Africa is considered legal.
Permission is always sought from the person being interviewed and it is always
made clear that the person has the right to refuse. Naturally those that were
taking medication and pregnant women are excluded. However, as with refusing to
do an alcoholic breathalyser test, the inference might be that they had
something to hide. This sub-technique works wonders.
Naturally
on the occasions when the detector went off the scale, this could indicate that
the person was being a little economical with the truth. When this was pointed
out to them, on about 99% of cases; they then confessed all to the offence.
Using
a lie detector in UK disciplinary meetings is likely to attract unwanted
attention and we have yet to find reference to it in the best practise guidance
of managing difficult disciplinary meetings!
