Free advice on Grievance and Discipline at work

Before considering taking any termination/ dismissal action organisations should review their proposed course of action against the Procedure Check page.

Like most areas of employment law discipline and Grievance matters have become more complicated over the last 15 years. Employers must put in place procedures which cater for the current employment climate. The danger if they do not is that they may find themselves losing Employment Tribunal claims not on the merits of the issue but simply because they have not followed the administrative procedures proscribed by law. Where dismissal of an employee is being considered see the separate section indexed left.

Our objective in this section is to try to give employers a straightforward approach to discipline and grievance which meets the legal requirements. To assist with this approach we have split the subject of discipline into two areas, conduct at work and performance at work. Grievance is finally covered as a separate subject.

1. Unsatisfactory conduct at work.

Conduct may range from someone who is persistently late to someone who has been stealing from the organisation. Now go to the section indexed opposite Improving work conduct.

2. Unsatisfactory work performance

In this case the individual's conduct at work may well be perfectly acceptable but for some reason they are unable to do their job properly. Now go to the section indexed opposite Performance improvement. In legal terms work performance is often referred to as 'capability'. In this section we stick to the term work performance because it is more easily understood.

3. Employee grievances

The Grievance procedure deals with the situation when an employee has a complaint about another employee or the way they have been treated.

Before considering taking any action organisations should review their proposed course of action against the Procedure Check page.