Updating your disciplinary policy and procedure

Mark Minns, 30 March 2009

The current regime on handling discipline and dismissals in the workplace is to be repealed on 6 April 2009, and is to be replaced with a new regime, one that aims to reduce disputes and claims to the Employment Tribunal.

Although much of the prior best practice will remain the same, employers must ensure that they take account of the new disciplinary and dismissal rules in order to avoid claims.

A key aspect of the new disciplinary and dismissal rules is the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures ("the Code"). This document (and the associated guidance notes) sets out the way in which disciplinary and dismissal issues should be handled in the future.

A failure to comply with the Code could lead to an Employment Tribunal increasing a compensation award by up to 25%. It is therefore essential reading for any employer involved in dealing with disciplinary or dismissal issues in the workplace.

Some of the key changes under the new regime are:

> the Code will apply to issuing of warnings, as well as dismissals;
> employees should be involved in the development and implementation of the new disciplinary and dismissal rules;
> employees may call witnesses to attend disciplinary hearings, but (arguably) may not cross-examine them; and
> consideration should be given to the involvement of third parties in the resolution of disputes, such as mediators.

One area of particular complexity are the transitional arrangements that deal with whether a given disciplinary or dismissal issue should be considered under the current regime, or the Code. Employers should always take specialist advice on whether a particular disciplinary or dismissal issue should be dealt with under the old or the new regime.

For more, see our up-to-date precedent disciplinary procedure (fully compliant with the new regime).