FROM October this year, employers will be further restricted in their handling of employees by the introduction of minimum disciplinary and grievance procedures.

While many employers already have well-developed procedures, this by no means applies in all cases.

Also, the new procedures will apply to a full range of dismissal situations including dismissals arising out of incapability, ill-health and redundancy as well as misconduct.

The future consequences of not following basic procedures will be draconian.

A failure will result in a dismissal being automatically unfair.

Essentially, employers and employees will be required to follow a minimum three- stage process to ensure that disputes, whether of a disciplinary or grievance nature, are discussed at work. This will involve:

Writing a letter explaining the issues

Holding a meeting to discuss the issues

Having an appeal meeting if required. While that may seem straightforward, it is not uncommon, for instance, to simply inform an employee verbally of a need to attend a disciplinary hearing. That will no longer be acceptable. Also, there are further requirements that an employee is properly informed of the allegations against him or her, given a full opportunity to answer these and that the procedure is conducted within a reasonable timescale. It is expected that anyone advising employees after October will be examining an employer's procedures in minute depth to see if a ground for automatic unfairness can be found.

Further, if procedures are not followed an Employment Tribunal has the discretion to increase any award of compensation by between ten and 50 per cent.

There are exceptions when the minimum procedures can be departed from, but these are limited - for example, where the employee is abusive or behaves in an unacceptable way - and dangerous to rely on.

The procedures will be relevant in a wide range of employment claims including sex, race and disability discrimination, as well as to complaints of failure to pay wages.

One crumb of comfort for employers is that employees may be barred from bringing Employment Tribunal complaints if they themselves have not exhausted the minimum procedures and may suffer a reduction in any compensation awarded if they are at fault in not allowing any particular part of the procedures to be followed. There are complicated provisions allowing for extensions of time to lodge Employment Tribunal complaints where internal procedures remain to be completed. While the Government's intention in introducing these new rules was to keep disputes within the workplace and reduce the number of complaints being brought to Employment Tribunals, most feel this result is unlikely.

In fact, it is anticipated that the new rules will involve ever more technical arguments being raised before Tribunals and the need in many cases for preliminary hearings.

What is clear is that employers need to ensure that those with authority to make decisions regarding dismissal or of a disciplinary nature are aware of the minimum standards to be followed and the consequences of a failure to do so.

Updated: 09:46 Tuesday, June 22, 2004