I'm afraid the time has come folks. The new discipline and grievance procedures will be introduced in less than three months time.- and HR departments up and down the country will no doubt be making last minute changes to their internal policies to make sure they tie in with the new law.
On top of the current economic crisis it's a wonder HR has time to do such things. But here's the good news.:the system will undoubetdly be a lot simpler than the old one. Yes it will require some tweaking to current policies but the dreaded 3-step rule will be abolished and greater flexibility will be allowed for the times that ACAS can help organisations conciliate.
To some at the HR Business Summit in Birmingham today, this news was quite the relief. Despite talk of the new procedures having been around for some time - with conciliation service ACAS publishing their new code of guidance last year - many HR practitioners I spoke to today were still unaware of what they needed to do or what was changing;.
Well, as Ed Sweeney, the chair of ACAS put it - himself leading a session at the summit,,here's a run down of what HR needs to know is changing:
- A repeal of the statutory grievance process
- Clear, simple and non prescriptive guidelines
- No time limits for how long ACAS can help resolve disputes, and
- More dispute services from ACAS before claims are lodged.
Sweeney said: "We are now moving into a new world where you will have to look at your proceses and procedures and see if they fit with the new structure."
But the guy next to me sighed at this very point,
Seconds later another delegate asked why the new system would help him, seeing as the 3-step prodcedure would ultimately be replaced with 4 or 5 meetings with less time deadlines
Sweeney remarked: "This is why we've got a smaller code.In many ways this [new procedure] is not for the large organisations, it's not many of those that find themselves at employment tribunal. This system is for SMEs.
"The main test will be whether we can reduce the number of cases from SMEs."
