Discipline and Grievance Procedures

These two procedures/policies are often confused: discipline is related to situations where the employer is unhappy with certain actions or behaviour of an employee; grievance is related to situations where an employee is unhappy with actions or behaviour of their employer. In order to appear equitable to both parties, the two procedures usually (but not always) follow broadly similar stages in the way they are administered and dealt with. Employers also have a statutory duty to provide written discipline and grievance procedures to all their employeeswhen starting employment.

In 2002 statutory minimum procedures were introduced that employers had to follow if they were contemplating the dismissal of an employee, or if that employee raises a grievance. These were referred to as the "3-Step" procedures and often proved very difficult for employers to comply with 100% of the time, with consequential claims for automatic unfair dismissal.

As of the 6th April 2009, The Employment Act 2008 repealed and replaced the above Statutory Procedures with a new ACAS Code of Conduct.  This new Code is essentially very similar to the previous code but importantly it now removes many of the "automatic" reasons that employees could lodge claims for unfair dismissal which were connected solely with lapses of procedure. As the new Code places a statutory duty on all employers that it must be adhered to, it really is a case of "ignore it at your peril".

ACAS have now released this new Code and it is now available to download (see menu on left).They have also released a "guide" to the Code which is also well worth a read through and it also contains model letters and procedures .

Further information can be found in the following Advice Note or by following links to other useful sites.

Discipline and Grievance Procedures Advice Note (Word)
Discipline and Grievance Procedures Advice Note (PDF)