IMPORTANT: If you are reasearching for a specific case and the events occured prior to April 2009, you should refer instead to Statutory Dismissal and Gievance Procedures, which is available HERE

The ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures came into force on 06 April 2009 being issued under section 199 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, replacing the statutory dispute resolution procedures which had come into force on the 01 October 2004 and were repealed by the Employment Act 2008 also on 06 April 2009. The purpose of the ACAS Code of Practice is to regulate the procedural requirement of the disciplinary and dismissal  process by requiring employers to follow fair procedures and, likewise, requiring employees to do the same when raising grievances with their employers or when responding to disciplinary or dismissal actions taken by their employers.

A failure to follow the requirements of the Code does not, in itself, make an employee or employer liable to proceedings. Nonetheless, if an employee makes a claim to an employment tribunal about an employment matter or an employer seeks to defend such a matter, being a matter that arose on or after the 06 April 2009, then the employment tribunal will take the Code into consideration when deciding the claim or defence and, in doing so, it will be able to adjust any award made by 25%. This mean that if the tribunal feels that an employer has unreasonably failed to follow the guidance set out in the Code, it can increase any award it has made by up to 25%. Conversely, if the tribunal feels an employee has unreasonably failed to follow the guidance set out in the Code, then it can reduce any award it has made by up to 25%.

The ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures that runs to only 10 pages is accompanied by a comprehensive non-statutory guidance booklet of some 70 pages that does not form part of the Code but has been prepared by ACAS to help employers and employees understand the Code of Practice and how to reflect it in their procedures and behaviour.

The Code does not apply to dismissals which are for the reason of redundancy or the non-renewal of fixed-term contracts. When employers dismiss employees for these two reasons, they should simply comply with their own policies and procedures which govern such dismissals and these are likely to entail broadly the same steps as those contained in the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.

The Code of Practice states that whenever a disciplinary or grievance process is being followed it is important to deal with issues fairly so that:

·         Employers and employees should raise and deal with issues promptly and should not unreasonably delay meetings, decisions or confirmation of those decisions;

·         Employers and employees should act consistently;

·         Employers should carry out any necessary investigations, to establish the facts of the case;

·         Employers should inform employees of the basis of the problem and give them an opportunity to put their case in response before any decisions are made;

·         Employers should allow employees to be accompanied at any formal disciplinary or grievance meeting;

·         Employers should allow an employee to appeal against any formal decision made.

Grievances: where an employee needs to raise a concern, problem or complain with her or his employer, the following key points are relevant:

·         The employee should let the employer know the nature of the grievance;

·         If  the grievance cannot be resolved informally, the employer should hold a meeting with the employee to discuss the grievance and allow the employee to be accompanied at the meeting by a suitable companion;

·         At the meeting, the employee should be given the opportunity to fully explain her or his grievance and what he or she thinks could be done to resolve it, assisted by the companion who should be allowed to speak at the meeting to put and sum up the case on the employee’s behalf;

·         After the grievance meeting, the employer should inform the employee in writing of its decision, if any, that it proposes to take. If the employee feels that the grievance has not been satisfactorily resolved, he or she should appeal in writing against the employer’s decision and do so without unreasonable delay;

·         After considering the reasons for the employee’s appeal, the employer should give the employee its final decision, again in writing and do so without unreasonable delay.

IMPORTANT: If you are reasearching for a specific case and the events occured prior to April 2009, you should refer instead to Statutory Dismissal and Gievance Procedures, which is available HERE

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To download the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures in full, please click HERE.
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