How Grievance And Disciplinary Procedures Work And Exerting Your Rights

Disciplinary procedures refer to the processes that are followed when a business investigates a problem with an employee and the other side of that, if an employee has a problem with their employer, is referred to as a grievance procedure. In both cases there are statutory minimum guidelines laid down by the government regarding workers' rights, but a company's procedure, as long as it follows those minimum guidelines, can add steps into the processes if they wish, and many do.

What To Do Before Grievance And Disciplinary Procedures Begin

In both cases, disciplinary and grievance procedures, it's wise to try and deal with the problem informally first. No one enjoys going through these processes and if a problem can be sorted out by some communication between the people involved, then so much the better. It doesn't make sense for an employer to throw the book at an employee because of, for example, lateness, without having a quiet word first to see if they can start getting in earlier.

It is also necessary to follow the procedures to the letter. If the situation is not resolved and has to go to an employment tribunal or other court, then it will not look good to the court if disciplinary or grievance procedures weren't followed by the business. This is because the procedures are seen as ways of resolving situations and courts will expect businesses and employers to use all means possible to resolve a dispute before resorting to legal action. In an extreme case, it could be construed as a waste of the court's time.

What Are Disciplinary Procedures?

Regulations came into force in 2004 to make it compulsory for all businesses in the UK, regardless of size, to have a formally laid down procedure for resolving workplace disputes regarding staff. The procedure should, as a minimum, cover issuing employees written statements about the grounds for disciplinary action, followed by a meeting to discuss it.

As part of their workers' rights, employees are allowed to be accompanied by another employee or a union representative at this meeting and any other meetings necessary throughout the process. There are time deadlines imposed for each. Employees are allowed to appeal against any decisions taken by employers after the meeting or meetings and if they are not satisfied after that appeal they may take to case to an employment tribunal.

In fact, many businesses have procedures that are more complex than those described above, this is just the minimum permitted by law. Employers must produce disciplinary procedure documentation and make it available to them. Note that this only applies to employees. There is now a distinction between workers and employees with regard to workplace legislation.

What Happens With Grievance Procedures?

In essence grievance procedures are similar to disciplinary procedures. The legal minimum is a three-step procedure; a written statement, a meeting, and an appeal meeting, if necessary. The written statement should be produced by the employee who has the grievance and handed to the person indicated in the procedure. If past written statements have not been acted upon (there are time limits for this) or the person that the employee has the problem with is the person who should accept the statement, then it should be passed to a human resources manager, and failing that, the owner of the business.

As with disciplinary meetings, as part of his worker's rights, an employee is allowed to be accompanied, either by another member of staff, or a union representative if they are a union member, and can take whatever notes they want. The purpose of the meeting is to firstly establish exactly what has happened and, hopefully, get agreement on those facts. Then the employee should detail what it has meant to them and why they have a grievance about the situation. Finally, and again hopefully, an agreement will be arrived at as to how the problem can be resolved.

If the employee is not happy about the outcome of the meeting they have a right of appeal. At the appeal, which would follow much the same format of the previous meeting, the employee can outline their reasons for disagreeing with the decisions taken by the employer at the first meeting.

What Can You Do If the Dispute is Left Unresolved?

With both disciplinary and grievance procedures if an agreement still can't be reached after the appeal process, then the next step will have to be taking the dispute to mediation, conciliation, arbitration or an employment tribunal. See our article on the subject in our 'Losing Your Job' section for more details and seek advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) or the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), details of which can be found online or in telephone directories.