ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) has published a draft of its non-statutory guidance on disciplinary and grievance procedures.

These guidelines are intended to complement the draft statutory code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures which was issued by the organisation in May.

While failure to follow the non-statutory guidance has no influence at an employment tribunal, the guidelines do provide an excellent source of information and advice on how best to handle discipline issues in the workplace. Whereas there is no substitute for independent legal advice, the guidance is a useful reference point for employers and employees. This document will be open for public consultation until the 25^th July 2008, so any interested parties can comment on the guidelines until that date.

Although the non-statutory guidelines have no bearing on the outcome of an employment tribunal, the statutory code of practice does. If it can be shown that the code of practice was not followed without good reason, the outcome of a tribunal could be that any award could be affected by as much as 25%.

Ashby Cohen are specialist employment law solicitors who have many years of experience in dealing with grievances and discipline issues that arise in the workplace. If there’s anything in the statutory code or the non-statutory guidance that you would like us to clarify for you, don’t hesitate to get in touch and find out how we can help you.

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