Can The Salary Hike Be Stopped To An Employee On Disciplinary Grounds

Hi Friends,
I have a collegue of mine who is very very good at her work. She is always willing to take any additional responsiblity and delivers with perfection. Last year, she got involved with a male collegue too much personal through sms and mails. However, she was quick to realise her mistake and corrected her action. There were no official compliants about it . The management came to know about it through grapevine. They have reduced her annual increment than the slab set for the year. Work-wise you can't point any mistake on her.
For my own understanding, is it right on the management part to do so when there is no official compliant from the anyone on the same. She only approched him through sms and mails - sending too much personal messages. We cannot find any mistake on her official work.
Please clarify.

Greetings,
Apologies if I may sound curious, this looks too a little reason, to stop someone's increment .
Did her actions affect someone's productivity ?
Did he lodge a complaint against her ?
Was she warned, in-person and in-writing about it ?
What she did looks personal . How was this made a part of her job ?
Please help us understand.

Hi,
In addition to what (Cite Contribution) said, I would like to know that the mails exchanged between her colleague and her was through official email id or personal id.
If the mails were exchanged through official email id, then yes, it is a breach of conduct and against the Email policy (if it exists in your company). This behavior will lead to disciplinary action but not to termination. If the conversation was done through the channel which I assumed above, then Management has full rights to cut her increment slab for the previous year.

First of all, this is not the ground for disciplinary action
second, as far as she does not violate any company policy there is no question of disciplinary action against her

Dear Friends,
Thank you.
Regarding (Cite Contribution)'s queries, the answer to all the questions is No.
She has messaged only to the private mobile number of both the persons and mailed or chatted partly through personal mail id and partly through professional mail id.
However, there is no email policy as such.

Greetings,
Then there are more reasons why her increments have been stopped.
Salary hikes are directly based on the results generated . A personal action, unless gravely reported and warned can't amount to a punishment .
What about the other person? Had he been penalised as well ?
This doesn't sound enough . Her actions hadn't affected productivity or his career.
Did she speak to her reporting managers ? How is she so sure about the reason?
I find the reason hard to believe. Are there any cluster formation in her firm ? If things are transparent, this cannot be the reason.

I agree with (Cite Contribution), there is more to this than a simple Intra office romance issue.

If i were a betting man, i would put my money on a mix of "workplace animosity and opportunism". In simple words, some one doesn't like her! and has made full use of this opportunity to discreetly express it...:-) Let me try and make sense of what i have just suggested...

Your friend is an excellent performer not only completing her tasks but taking additional responsibilities as well (I'm trusting this statement on its full merit without discounting any "good relationship" biases that naturally comes in any human assessment of each other). So if there were people like (colleagues, immediate bosses or even seniors from other department) who had some kind a negative feelings towards her, they would be unable to formally act against her. This romance episode gave that some one an ideal opportunity to strike. I think it is pure Office politics at play here.

Has your friend had a word with the management about this? what were their official version? and what is the unofficial version (can be found out thru the grapevine as well).

Has the guy been penalized as well ? I wont be surprised if that is not the case... It will give us an indication of who might be behind this action ..

Who dun it? :-) well that would depend on how your appraisal system works... Look at the appraisal system. See who all in an influencing role in the system and that would lead you to the source of the issue... again dont be too suprised if it is not the guy at the top but someone in between...

Cheers

Navneet

Invalid & Unsound reason to stop salary hike. The same shall be clarified with Mgt seeking reason for stopping the hike

He/She used private mails or mobiles to chat with her male colleague but both have utilised the official work hours for personal matter. Both are at fault and the management has got every right to disallow their increments.
Pon

This is a case of undue exploitation. Unfortunately personal scores seem to be settled using performance appraisal, recognition and reward program being influenced by someones personal whims and fancies.
If the management wanted send a message to the other employees by holding back increments, they should realize that they have set forth a very poor example that the is HR incompetent at defining and developing an appropriate performance appraisal and recognition plan.
The HR should clearly develop a policy that states what shall be deemed as appropriate and in-appropriate or un-acceptable employee behaviour. It is a very sensitive topic, but no organization has the right to discourage or encourage the personal relations between employees.
The organization shall loose many good employees like this.