Discipline and grievance procedures: UK employment law

Essential points

• Discipline and grievance procedures at work provide fair and formal structures to address misconduct or performance issues, and/or, to enable employees to raise concerns or complaints about workplace issues. Discipline and grievance procedures can be separate or combined policies.

• UK employment law requires all employers to have a disciplinary procedure (Employment Rights Act, 1996, s3). The law does not specify what those procedures should be, but they should reflect the Acas code of practice (the Code) as a failure to follow the principles of the Code can result in penalties.  

• The Code presents the minimum legal expectations for both disciplinary and grievance scenarios. On the page below, the CIPD outline compliance with the Code, and then supplement this information with points on legal risk, and information on case law in this area.

• Practitioners may note that during disciplinary and grievance procedures, HR advice should be limited to questions of law, procedure and process. The actual findings on culpability and sanction should be decided by the disciplining officer.

• All employers should note that to successfully protect employees, and themselves, in the event of a dispute, an employment tribunal should be a last resort, when all other options have been exhausted.

• It is generally advisable that disciplinary and grievance procedures are expressly stated to be non-contractual. This gives employers the ability to make changes to the procedures more easily, and also avoids employees having a claim for breach of contract if they are not followed to the letter.

• In Northern Ireland matters of discipline and grievance are devolved (transferred). Members can find the key information on this matter on the employment law page for Northern Ireland.