In October 2004, new employment law legislation came into effect that requires employers to have a proscribed procedure for disciplinary action against employees that may be dismissed, no matter how large or small your business.
In addition, the legislation requires all employees to now have a minimum statutory grievance procedure. A grievance is a matter raised by an employee when he or she is unhappy with your behaviour or with the conduct of colleagues, such as bullying, victimisation, discrimination or being treated unfairly.
The idea of the legislation is to try to reduce the number of employment law claims made to employment tribunals and to encourage employers and employees to settle matters within the workplace or, at least, in an out of court compromise agreements. This was a great idea in principal even though it put extra regulatory burden on employers. Unfortunately, in practice it created more uncertainty and plenty of litigation. The government has now announced a new set of principles will apply from April 2009, and there is an update on this below, setting out some of the changes.