Discipline Under UK Employment Law

Managing your employees is no small task.  Disciplining employees under your management requires fair procedure that follows guidelines set upon by UK Law Employment. Management of disciplinary matters gives rise to a large number of employment tribunal claims each year, including breach of contract, unfair dismissal and discrimination. In addition, the employment law of 2002 introduced new dispute resolution legal procedures which came into force in October 2004 that means that all employers now have to follow certain procedures when disciplining their staff.

Apply legal procedures to all employees, regardless of their length of service, so that employers must ensure that they are still following these standards. In addition, if a company  already has its own internal disciplinary proceedings, they are expected to follow this procedure, as well as any additional requirements of the legal procedures.

This guide provides the basics of how much discipline, but employers must carefully comply with their own procedures, if they have. Employers must also follow the code of practice of ACAS on discipline and grievance procedures courts to take into account when assessing the fairness of a dismissal. (Refer to the code of practice of ACAS and simple ACAS Guide to legal procedures).

An employer must follow appropriate disciplinary proceedings if it considers that an employee may be guilty of misconduct. To the extent possible, the disciplinary procedure should aim to improve the conduct, rather than simply to punish the misdeed. Sometimes it is clear that an allegation of misconduct is being made. For example, if an employer believes that an employee has been disclosing commercial secret e-mail with a competitor, this is a charge of misconduct, and any action taken must be in line.