Goodbye to Statutory Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures!

It is with relief that employers will bid farewell to the statutory disciplinary and grievance procedures.  This regime, which proved to be a headache for many employers and produced a vast amount of litigation simply over the interpretation of the legislation itself, had been in place since October 2004. 

The statutory procedures have now, subject to transitional provisions, effectively been replaced with a tribunal’s power to increase (or decrease) an award of compensation by up to 25% for failure to follow the new ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.  The Code is fairly brief and gives clear guidance to employers on how to convene and conduct disciplinary and grievance hearings (download it from ACAS at www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=1041). 

As a result of the introduction of the new Code, employers must now remember to inform employees of their right to be accompanied at any hearing in order to conform with the Code (although this has in any event been standard good practice for a number of years now). 

If you would like advice on the new Code or help with reviewing your existing procedures in the light of these changes, please contact Caroline Banwell.

Some further developments:

Increase in paid holiday entitlement - this has risen to 28 days, including bank holidays, for full time workers. 

Flexible working extension - employees now have the right to request flexible working if they have children of 16 or under or disabled children of 18 or under.  It is important to note that employers are under no obligation to grant such a request but they must "seriously consider” it.

Increase in redundancy pay - in last month’s Budget the Chancellor increased a week’s pay for the purposes of calculating redundancy pay from £350 to £380.  At the time of going to print it is still not known when this change will actually take effect.

If you have any queries concerning these or other employment law issues or developments, please contact our employment law expert, Katy Adcock.

The information given in this article is of a general nature only and should not be considered as advice applicable to any particular situation for which specific request should be made to us.

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