No more disciplinary or grievance procedures!!!!
04 April 2009
Well after all that talk and discussion and debating and contemplating its finally happened.
Statutory grievance and disciplinary procedures have gone.
This will not actually make a huge difference for a great deal of employers on the basis that the fact the old procedures were contractual meant alot of us put them in our contracts and now if we do not keep them we could be sued under breach of contract. But nevertheless the statutory and onerous conditions and laws have now been removed.
This does have effect on constructive dismissal claims where previously employers were alerted to these facts by submission of a grievance and had the chance to put right any breach. That being said, the huge amount of cases in this area proved that grievances were used more as a sham and just a means to get to a claim rather than to be taken particularly seriously by either party. On that basis they wont be missed too much but it may a different story for disciplinary procedures.
Whilst the law in this area is still very grey, and will remain so for a few months at least until test cases are decided in tribunals, it is certainly clear that employers still have to be reasonable and will be criticised for not following procedures of some sort that allow the employee to have the right to be heard, in some sort of controlled conditions, ie by having a witness present, and has a right to have all the facts prior to any hearing. This basically puts us back in the very position that we were prior to these rules being abolished.
Whether or not this decision is groundbreaking remains to be seen but employers are advised to tread with caution and if anyone thinks that this is now the chance to dismiss on the spot they are very much mistaken!
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