| 1 | Disciplinary hearings: legal representation The High Court has held that a teacher was entitled to legal representation at an internal disciplinary hearing given the gravity of allegations which, if upheld, would lead to him being reported by his employer as unfit to work with children. | Legal update: archive | 24-Apr-2009 |
| 2 | Written statement of grievance The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a solicitor's letter before action can amount to a written statement of grievance for the purposes of the Employment Act 2002. | Legal update: archive | 30-Jan-2006 |
| 3 | Procedural irregularities The Employment Appeal Tribunal has allowed a claim to be admitted despite the claim form's failure to contain, expressly, the required information. | Legal update: archive | 18-Aug-2005 |
| 4 | Disciplinary and grievance procedures The revised Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures has been laid before Parliament. | Legal update: archive | 19-Aug-2004 |
| 5 | Disciplinary and grievance procedures The Department of Trade and Industry has issued draft amended regulations on statutory disciplinary procedures and statutory grievance procedures. | Legal update: archive | 20-Feb-2004 |
| 6 | Right to be accompanied The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a redundancy consultation meeting is not a “disciplinary hearing” for the purpose of section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999. | Legal update: archive | 28-Nov-2003 |
| 7 | Disciplinary and grievance procedures The Department of Trade and Industry is consulting on the introduction of statutory disciplinary procedures and statutory grievance procedures. | Legal update: archive | 22-Aug-2003 |
| 8 | Disciplinary and grievance hearings The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the right to be accompanied at a disciplinary hearing includes a hearing at which a warning of a formal nature could be given. | Legal update: archive | 31-Jul-2003 |
| 9 | Disciplinary proceedings The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employer did not need to give an employee an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses at a disciplinary hearing. | Legal update: archive | 25-Feb-2003 |
| 10 | Disciplinary procedures The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that there is no general principle of law that the person making a decision at a disciplinary hearing cannot be informed of, or be initially involved in the setting of, an investigation into an employee’s alleged misconduct. | Legal update: archive | 01-Oct-2001 |
| 11 | Acas arbitration scheme The Acas arbitration scheme for unfair dismissal cases will come into effect on 21st May, 2001 in England and Wales and next year in Scotland. | Legal update: archive | 27-Apr-2001 |
| 12 | New Acas code The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service has drafted a new code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures to replace its 1977 code. | Legal update: archive | 25-Feb-2000 |
| 13 | Disciplinary procedures: witness statements The Court of Appeal has decided that there is no requirement that an employee must be shown copies of witness statements in the context of a disciplinary investigation in every case. | Legal update: archive | 01-Jun-1999 |
| 14 | Breach of contractual disciplinary procedure Where an employee sues for damages on the grounds that his employer failed to follow a contractual disciplinary procedure, the measure of loss is assessed on the basis of lost earnings and benefits which the employee would have received had the procedure been followed. | Legal update: archive | 01-Mar-1998 |
| 15 | Failure to follow disciplinary procedure There is no implied contract term not to be unfairly dismissed. When assessing employees' damages for dismissals in breach of contract and disciplinary procedures, the tribunal must consider how the contract could have been lawfully terminated. | Legal update: archive | 01-Jun-1996 |
| 16 | Disciplinary investigations The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) found that an employer had carried out a reasonable investigation into alleged theft of its property before dismissing the employee. It was not required to follow up witness statements which were not produced by the employee until the second disciplinary appeal hearing and which purported to support the employee's story, which had changed since the original disciplinary interview. | Legal update: archive | 01-Mar-1995 |
| 17 | Criminal charges The dismissal of an employee charged with an offence not connected with his employment (out of concern over how customers would view him) was unfair because the employers did not look at alternatives or discuss the matter with the customer. | Legal update: archive | 01-Jan-1995 |
| 18 | Defective Appeals Panel Where a contractual appeals procedure provides for a specific number of people to hear an employee's appeal against dismissal, it is substantive failure (not a procedural technicality) rendering the dismissal unfair, if the appeals panel is incorrectly constituted. | Legal update: archive | 01-Nov-1994 |
| 19 | Witness statements Whilst it is generally advisable for employees accused of misconduct to be given copies of witness statements during the disciplinary interview, a failure to do so does not necessarily render a dismissal unfair. The key requirement is that the employee should be made fully aware of the allegations against him so that he has a fair opportunity to give an explanation. | Legal update: archive | 01-Oct-1991 |