Time Is Up For Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures?

It is unlikely that anyone dealing with disputes in the workplace could have failed to notice the introduction of the statutory disciplinary, dismissal and grievance procedures in October 2004 and the potential minefield these procedures created. The central aim of the procedures was to encourage employees and employers to resolve disputes in the workplace, rather than through the employment tribunals. The Government promised to review the Regulations after two years to see if the objective had been met. The result is the independent Gibbons Review (the Review), which has just been published, suggests that the procedures have failed to avoid disputes arising and instead led to a wealth of other problems.

Abolition of procedures

Firstly, and most importantly, the Review has recommended a complete repeal of the statutory disciplinary and grievance procedures. It commented that rather than encouraging early resolution in the workplace, the regulations exacerbate and accelerate disputes by requiring the use of formal procedures to deal with problems that could have been resolved informally. In addition, the complexity of the procedures and the penalties imposed for failure to comply with them, have led to both employees and employers having to seek external legal advice at a very early stage of the dispute.

Other key recommendations

The Review also recommended that the Government should:

Support employers and employees to resolve more disputes in the workplace by:

(a) replacing the statutory procedures with simple and flexible guidelines on grievances, discipline and dismissals in the workplace, which will encourage good practice and early resolution of disputes without laying down strict steps

(b) providing incentives to comply with the new guidelines with sanctions through costs orders or adjustment of tribunal awards against those who do not make adequate efforts to resolve the dispute or who otherwise behave unreasonably

(c) putting an obligation on employer and employee organisations to promote early dispute resolution, e.g. through the use of in-house mediation, early neutral evaluation, and provisions in employment contracts.

Actively assist the parties to resolve disputes that have not been resolved in the workplace by:

(a) introducing a new, simple process to settle monetary disputes on issues such as wages, redundancy and holiday pay, without the need for tribunal hearings

(b) improving the advice (through help lines and the...