Interesting EAT - Right to be accompanied - Remember it.

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The companion is to be chosen by the worker, not by the employer, but the companion must come from within one of the three categories of individuals identified in subsection 3. That is to say, he must be employed by a trade union (in other words a paid official), or an unpaid official who is certified by the union or a fellow worker.

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Section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 provides as follows:
"10 Right to be accompanied.
(1) This section applies where a worker -
(a) is required or invited by his employer to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing, and
(b) reasonably requests to be accompanied at the hearing.
(2) Where this section applies the employer must permit the worker to be accompanied at the hearing by a single companion who—
(a) is chosen by the worker and is within subsection (3)

(3) A person is within this subsection if he is—
(a) employed by a trade union of which he is an official within the meaning of sections 1 and 119 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992,
(b) an official of a trade union (within that meaning) whom the union has reasonably certified in writing as having experience of, or as having received training in, acting as a worker's companion at disciplinary or grievance hearings, or
(c) another of the employer's workers.