14. See also Guide paragraphs 18-21 below on forfeiture of pension.
FINES
15. Code paragraph 8c makes provision for the use of fines as a disciplinary penalty, as distinct from restitution payments designed to compensate the Civil Service, as an employer, for loss. Departments should ensure that the amount of any fine:
16.
&.
is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case, including the gravity of the offence,
the officer's previous conduct, and his general financial position;
b. in so far as the Truck Act 1896 is applied to the Civil Service by analogy, does not exceed, for officers falling within the definition of workman in the Act, a fixed or ascertainable amount according to a scale set out in their staff handbook or in a notice displayed at their place of work.
!
Departments should remember when imposing a fine that it will be open to an officer to take the following action if he objects to the amount of the deduction. He may sue for his wages in full or he may terminate his employment and claim unfair dismissal on the grounds that the department's conduct in imposing an excessive fine amounts to constructive dismissal. In either case the reasonableness of a fine may come to be in issue before a court or industrial tribunal.
17. On dismissal for an offence involving loss to public funds, any sums unpaid for example in respect of salary or wages up to the last day of duty, or of income tax overpaid on salary, may, and normally should, be withheld as a set-off against the
Similar set-offs should be made if an officer who would have
loss.
f
}
6