Time to review your internal disciplinary and grievance procedures?

23 March 2004

Parliament has decided that when it comes to workplace disputes, it's good to talk... and the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 which have just been published and come into force on 1 October 2004, will make sure that we all do!

These regulations aim to encourage employers and employees to handle employment disputes early and internally, rather than wait for communication to break down, and end up before a tribunal unnecessarily. They do so by imposing statutory minimum disciplinary and grievance procedures which employers and employees will have to follow to attempt to resolve disputes at work.

The core obligations that the regulations will impose are that:
1.   The party initiating the internal procedure must set out the issues in writing,
2.   Both parties must meet to discuss these issues, and
3.   There must be an appeals procedure.

Employees will not be able to complain to a tribunal unless they have first aired their grievance internally. Employers failing to go through the statutory disciplinary procedure face an automatic finding of unfair dismissal. Any party who does not complete the relevant procedure may lose out if compensation is awarded.

ACAS is revising its code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, to take account of these changes. The draft code is available on ACAS' website at www.acas.org.uk. It provides guidance to the new statutory procedures, and on standards of good practice which tribunals will take into account when reviewing how a case has been handled by an employer.
 
It may seem a bit premature for us to be alerting you to legislation that is only coming into force in the autumn, but in fact, everyone needs to start preparing now. You should have your disciplinary and grievance policies reviewed to make sure that they comply with and make reference to the new law, and train your managers to put them into force. You should also raise your employees' awareness, so that the new regulations are used constructively by them too, and internal disputes are nipped in the bud wherever possible.
 
We will review the implications of the new regulations in our next newsletter, which we will be sending out in the near future.