Members are advised to review their disciplinary and grievance procedures in light of an update to Code of Practice 1 – Disciplinary and grievance procedures from ACAS. This includes a summary of both the standard statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure and the standard statutory grievance procedure.

If an employee claims unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal, failure by an employer to follow the statutory procedures will result in a decision by the tribunal that the dismissal is automatically unfair and may lead to an increase of up to 50% in the compensation awarded.

The new statutory procedures were discussed at the national board of the JIB on 16 September and the JIB procedures are being revised to take account of the new legislation. For a copy of Code of Practice 1 – Disciplinary and grievance procedures go to www.acas.org.uk/publications/ pdf/cp01.pdf or telephone 0870 600 5522.

- The JIB conciliation service is to be updated in order to preserve an individual’s right of access to an employment tribunal.

From now on, a short period of JIB conciliation will be followed by referral to the employment tribunal process, if the event is not resolved to the satisfaction of both parties involved. In essence, the JIB national officers will now seek to conciliate a settlement within 28 days. For all other grievances the established arrangements will apply.