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A Code of Practice for resolving workplace disputes has been approved by the Department for Business and awaits final Parliamentary approval. The revised Acas Discipline and Grievance Code of Practice is shorter and simpler than its predecessor.
A review of how workplace disputes are handled was conducted last year by Michael Gibbons and the shorter, simpler Code is a result of that. The review found that regulations governing dispute handling had failed and needed to be less prescriptive.
"This is perhaps a classic case of good policy, but inappropriately inflexible and prescriptive regulation," said Gibbons in his report. "The key message from this Review is that inflexible, prescriptive regulation has been unsuccessful in this context and it follows that the measures to be used in future should be much simpler and more flexible."
The new Code from Acas, which stands for Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, is intended to be the answer to those problems. It has been approved by the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), Peter Mandelson. It will now be put before Parliament before coming into effect on 6th April 2009.
"The responses from the Gibbons Review showed that people wanted a shorter, more principles-based Code, which is what we have produced," said George Boyce of Acas's strategy unit. "The idea was to try to drill down to the core principles of natural justice about how dispute and grievance situations should be handled in a fair and reliable manner."
The current Code contains a compulsory three step procedure for handling grievances, but while Gibbons recognised that the regulations were well intentioned, he said that their effect was counter-productive.
Practitioners agreed, and the Chartered Institute of Professional Development (CIPD) last year found that a significant minority of employers thought that the procedures had increased the number of grievances and increased the chance of grievances becoming formal disciplinary cases.
Only 3% of respondents told the CIPD that they thought the procedures had led to a decrease in the number of formal disciplinary cases.
It will not be compulsory for employers to use the new Code or follow any particular procedure. The Code will, though, have a crucial function in employment cases once the Government's Employment Bill becomes law.
That Bill proposes giving Employment Tribunals the right to increase payouts by up to 25% if they find in an employee's favour and find that the employer did not follow the Code.
The current Code is around 40 pages long but the incoming one is just 10 pages, said Boyce. Much of the practical advice that had been in the statutory Code will still be available, but will not actually form part of the Code itself.
Boyce said that while the incoming Code is different in some ways to the current one it should not be too great a change for employers.
"I think much of it should be familiar to people, there shouldn't be any shocks for employers or employees," he said.
Simplified Code for workplace disputes needs only Parliament's approval | OUT-LAW.COM
A review of how workplace disputes are handled was conducted last year by Michael Gibbons and the shorter, simpler Code is a result of that. The review found that regulations governing dispute handling had failed and needed to be less prescriptive.
"This is perhaps a classic case of good policy, but inappropriately inflexible and prescriptive regulation," said Gibbons in his report. "The key message from this Review is that inflexible, prescriptive regulation has been unsuccessful in this context and it follows that the measures to be used in future should be much simpler and more flexible."
The new Code from Acas, which stands for Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, is intended to be the answer to those problems. It has been approved by the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), Peter Mandelson. It will now be put before Parliament before coming into effect on 6th April 2009.
"The responses from the Gibbons Review showed that people wanted a shorter, more principles-based Code, which is what we have produced," said George Boyce of Acas's strategy unit. "The idea was to try to drill down to the core principles of natural justice about how dispute and grievance situations should be handled in a fair and reliable manner."
The current Code contains a compulsory three step procedure for handling grievances, but while Gibbons recognised that the regulations were well intentioned, he said that their effect was counter-productive.
Practitioners agreed, and the Chartered Institute of Professional Development (CIPD) last year found that a significant minority of employers thought that the procedures had increased the number of grievances and increased the chance of grievances becoming formal disciplinary cases.
Only 3% of respondents told the CIPD that they thought the procedures had led to a decrease in the number of formal disciplinary cases.
It will not be compulsory for employers to use the new Code or follow any particular procedure. The Code will, though, have a crucial function in employment cases once the Government's Employment Bill becomes law.
That Bill proposes giving Employment Tribunals the right to increase payouts by up to 25% if they find in an employee's favour and find that the employer did not follow the Code.
The current Code is around 40 pages long but the incoming one is just 10 pages, said Boyce. Much of the practical advice that had been in the statutory Code will still be available, but will not actually form part of the Code itself.
Boyce said that while the incoming Code is different in some ways to the current one it should not be too great a change for employers.
"I think much of it should be familiar to people, there shouldn't be any shocks for employers or employees," he said.
Simplified Code for workplace disputes needs only Parliament's approval | OUT-LAW.COM
