"Nobody wants to go through tribunal proceedings unless they
have to, and yet research has shown that nearly two thirds of
applications come from employees who have not discussed the problem
with their employers first,” said Employment Relations Minister
Gerry Sutcliffe earlier today.
"Many good employers already have and use grievance and
disciplinary procedures. But there are some who either don't use
existing procedures, or don't have any in place. These new
regulations provide a simple, easy to follow basic procedure which
will benefit employees, employers, and the tax payer," he
added.
The Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004
make it mandatory for every UK employer to have in place statutory
disciplinary and grievance procedures, and to use them correctly
when workplace disputes arise.
They set out a basic three-step statutory procedure that should
be followed before a case can be heard by an employment tribunal,
encouraging people to talk through disputes when and where they
occur, using employment tribunals as a back up rather than a first
port of call.
This will also cut the number of cases going through the
employment tribunal system unnecessarily, saving all parties
stress, time and money, says the Government.
Under the new rules, before a matter can be taken to an
employment tribunal:
- the issue must be set out in writing;
- a meeting must be held between the parties to discuss the
matter; and,
- an appeal meeting must be held if the matter has still not been
resolved.
The employee also has a statutory right to be accompanied to
workplace dispute/disciplinary meetings by a trade union official
or work colleague. Clarifications to the role of a companion in
these meetings are laid out in the Employment Relations Act 2004
and come into effect today as well.
Failure by either party to follow the three-step procedure will
mean they could incur financial penalties if the dispute goes to an
employment tribunal. In a dismissal case where the employer has
failed to follow the procedure, the dismissal will be found
automatically unfair.
In addition to the dispute resolution regulations, new
procedures for handling employment tribunal claims come into effect
today. The rules have been rewritten in plain English to aid
user-friendliness, and the substantive changes will improve the
system by:
- requiring more information to be provided by claimants and
respondents up-front;
- sifting out at the outset, by way of new "pre-acceptance"
procedures, claims and responses that the tribunals are not
empowered to deal with;
- introducing a fixed conciliation period with Acas – 13 weeks
for most cases, 7 weeks for simple ones - to promote early
settlement where possible.
The new, plain English claim and response forms which come into
use today take into account the new dispute resolution regulations
and new procedures; and from next April, the use of these forms
will become mandatory.
