Module 5 Applied Discussion Exercise - Progressive DisciplineEver since she was hired, Meredith had a problem with habitual tardiness. According to department attendance records, Meredith had been late to work at least 20 times each year since she joined the company in 2013. Most of the time, she was late less than 30 minutes, but occasionally she was an hour or more late to work.Meredith is the mother of 2 school-age children, and her husband traveled frequently for his job. Meredith claimed that mary of the times she was late was because of weather-related school delays or a child's illness and her inability to get a babysitter on short notice. Since Meredith was a salaried employee, she never lost wages for the working hours she missed.On June 26, her supervisor, with concurrence from the department manager, terminated her employment. Meredith did not dispute the number of times that she had been late, but she filed a grievance with the Human Resource Department, alleging that management did not follow the compamy's written progressive disciplinary process, which consisted of the following:Verbal Caution. An employee will be given a verbal caution when s/he engages in problematic behavior,Verbal Warning. The immediate supervisor meets privately with the employee, discusses the problem, and indicates that the meeting is a verbal warning. The verbal warning is documented and placed in the employee's personnel file for 90 days.Written Warning. A written warning is issued when the employee engages in the unacceptable behavior during the period that the verbal warning is in effect. The warning details what the problem is, how the employee should change his/her behavior to fix the problem, and the consequences if s/he does not comply. The written warning is placed in the employee's personnel file for 90 days and a copy is given to the employee.Final Warning. The supervisor meets with the employee, reviews instances when the unacceptable behavior occurred during the period that the written warning is in effect, and advises that termination will result if improvement does not occur.Termination. If the problem is not resolved, the supervisor must meet with the employee, review the documentation and terminate the employee.Meredith acknowledged that she had been given several verbal cautions, a verbal warning, and a written warning. However, she claims that she was never given a final warning before her termination.