Advice on informal warnings in the salon

We received the following question via email:

Hi I recently had to have an informal meeting with a staff member to verbally warn her that this was the last time I wanted to hear of accusations she was making of other staff members. (I've had to informally chat with her about it twice previously) I asked her to sign the documentation of the informal meeting we've held and the fact I've warned her to stop speaking about the issues raised.

She has now gone off sick for 2 weeks and written me a letter to appeal against the "verbal warning" on the grounds of no notice of the meeting and not being offered a rep.

As I understand, the meetings were informal as I wanted the concerns raised nipping in the bud, and wanted to do this informally so as not to go now the road of formal procedures, where do I stand with this?.

I called the meeting informally on Saturday after work,

Having spoken to her twice recently about the same issues I told her that I am documenting the fact that I am warning her that I want the issues nipped in the bud now, and I don't want to hear anymore of the issues otherwise we would then have to use the formal route, like everything I document I asked her to sign and date it.

I follow the acas advice as below

Grievances are best dealt with at an early stage, informally, with the immediate line manager. However, organisations should have formal procedures in place to handle cases left unresolved. Having formal grievance procedures in place allows employers to give reasonable consideration to any issues which can't be resolved informally and to deal with them fairly and consistently. Pursuing the formal route should be a last resort rather than the first option.