Legal Update - Employment Act 2008

The Act will repeal the controversial statutory dispute resolution procedures introduced in 2004. This change will take place on 6 April 2009 and its effect will be that:

A dismissal will no longer be automatically unfair where the statutory dismissal or disciplinary procedures have not been followed by the employer.
Employees will no longer be prevented from bringing a claim in the Employment Tribunal without having first raised a grievance with their employer.
The Employment Tribunal's power to increase or decrease awards by up to 50% for non-compliance with the procedures will no longer apply.
The automatic extension to the three month time limit where statutory procedures are ongoing will no longer apply.
Where an employer has dismissed an employee without following a fair procedure, an Employment Tribunal may reduce the compensation otherwise payable or award no compensation if, in their opinion, even if the employer had followed the correct procedures, the employee would still have been dismissed.

ACAS Code of Practice
These changes do not mean that all disciplinary and grievance procedures should be forgotten. ACAS has published a Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures to provide employers, employees and their representatives with basic practical guidance on how to conduct certain employment related issues. The Code is not legally binding, however the Employment Tribunal will have the power to increase or reduce awards by up to 25% if the employer or employee unreasonably fails to comply with it.

A copy of the current draft of the Code is available at: www.acas.org.uk. ACAS has also published a lengthy guidance booklet to complement the Code.

We recommend that employers and employees read the Code along with its guidance and, further, that employers consider incorporating the principles of the Code into staff handbooks.

By Katie Holland

For any further advice on employment law and the above or other changes introduced by the Act, please contact our Poole office on 01202 725400 or our Dorchester office on 01305 251007.