1. Certificate in Human Resource Management Employment Law Session Six Disciplinary and Grievance
11/26/2018

2. Disciplinary Procedure
Condition of employment – subject to grievance procedures
Must have a Discipline and Grievance policy
Employers responsibility to draw them up
Ideally incorporated into the contract
If in the contract, failure to adhere to the procedure may be breach of contract
Jones v Guilding – headmaster dismissed due to divorce

3. Discipline and Grievance
Must be fair and consistent
Designed to ensure the employee is given every possible opportunity to put right any conduct
Corrective rather than punitive

4. Procedures in Operation
Three categories of hearing:
Informal Interview or Counselling sessions
Investigatory
Disciplinary
Selwyn’s Law of Employment

5. Investigation
No employee should be disciplined until the proper investigations have been carried out
If the allegations are severe enough the employee made be suspended pending investigations

6. Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures
All D+P procedures should take into account ACAS code of practice
Should be studied in detail by management so they are familiar
Employment tribunals should always take the code into account
FeaBk

7. Right to be Accompanied
Employment Relations Act 1999
Right to make a reasonable request to be accompanied by a single companion who can be either:
Official of a trade union
Another of the employers workers
The companion can address the hearing to put across the workers case, sum up, confer with the worker

8. Disciplinary Powers
What are the main course of disciplinary action that an employer might take, and can you think of a situation where each course of action might be appropriate?
8 main courses of action

9. Dismissal
Fair dismissal: What reasons can you think of based on the last activity?

10. Dismissal
Unfair dismissal:
ou must have worked for your employer for a minimum period before you qualify for the right to claim unfair dismissal at a tribunal. If you’re classed as an employee and started your job:
on or after 6 April the qualifying period is normally 2 years
before 6 April the qualifying period is normally 1 year
No length of service requirements for automatically unfair grounds

11. Acas Guidelines
Dismissing employees should be the last resort and employers should carry out necessary investigations without unreasonable delay to establish the facts.
Employers should use a fair and consistent procedure when dismissing employee.
It's always best to try to resolve any issues informally first - often a quiet word is all it takes to sort out problems.
Employees have the right not to be unfairly dismissed

12. Dismissal Automatically unfair dismissal:
Pregnancy and all reasons relating to maternity
Family reasons – covered by parental leave, paternity leave, adoption leave or time off for dependants
Acting as an employee or TU representative
Part-time and fixed-term employees
Discrimination
Pay and working hours, including working time regulations, annual leave and the minimum wage

13. Dismissal Remedies for unfair dismissal:
Re-instatement, normally including an award of compensation for loss of earnings
Re-engagement, normally including an award of compensation for loss of earnings
Compensation

14. Compensation
Actual losses
Future losses
Expenses in job seeking