Human Resources
Management
T. 8 Grievance and discipline
D. Borisova
Aspects
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Rights and of responsibilities employers and
employees
Managing discipline in the workplace: from
punishment to performance
The role of HR professional
Grievance and discipline policies, procedures,
rules and sanctions
Union role and non-union issues,
institutionalization of conflict in the
employment relationship
General concerns in grievance and discipline
handling
Grievance and discipline as
employment procedures
“…those organisational mechanisms,
which provide a formal regulatory
framework for handling specified
issues and, in so doing, define and
limit the exercise of managerial
authority and power” Salmon, 2000
The disciplinary procedure
“Setting the standards of conduct
expected from employees, specifying
what is to be done following behavior,
which is deemed unsatisfactory”
Marchington, Wilkinson, 2000
Rights and responsibilities
 Legal issues in employment contracts
 Informal expectations in the psychological
contract
 Ethic, moral, social issues – common
interest
 Policy framework, procedures, appropriate
sanction
Importance of proper handling of
discipline issues
 Decrease of employee frustration
 Increase of the motivation and productivity
 Increase in retention rates
 Decline in labor turnover
 Avoids the overall employee discontent and
possible legal actions
Dismissal Procedure
 Purpose: ensures that standards are maintained
 Need for proper training of managers to:
 Gain and record accurate information
 Skills needed: interviewing, questioning, listening,
writing, record keeping
 Responsibility of employer to conduct full and
proper investigation of the facts
 Advisory role of HR professionals to secure legal
compliance
The HR Role - general
 A “welfare” or “go-between” management and
employees
 Responsible ultimately to the employer
 Advisory role to secure fairness, justice and
legal compliance
 Must investigate issues thoroughly in due
course, therefore needs to have skills in:
 Situation analysis
 Report writing
 Understanding of ACAS code and the law
The HR Role – in practice
 Devise the procedures
 Provide specialist advice
 Ensure that everyone is aware of the
procedures and acts consistently
 Ensure that line managers are suitably
trained
 Monitor the effectiveness of the
procedures
Five Manager’s “musts”
 Fairness
 Reasonableness
 Consistency
 Operating with just cause
 Operating within the law
Institutionalization of conflict in the
employment relationship (UK, 1960+)
 Industrial Relation Act (1971) and the concept of
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“unfair dismissal”
Use of Arbitration, Conciliation and Advisory
Service (ASAS) Code of Practice (1975)
Employment Right Act 20+ org must provide
information about existence of G&D procedures
Employment Relation Act (1999) the right to be
accompanied
Employment Act 2002/2003 the removal of 20
employee threshold
The ACAS Code of Practice (2004)
 Aim: to help all who may be concerned with such
issues by providing practical advice about
handling grievance and discipline at work
 Legislative treatment: failure to comply with the
code could not directly be used to file an unfair
dismissal case, but could be used as an evidence
 Reasons:
 To promote fairness and to set standards of work and
conduct and what may happen if these standards are
not achieved
 To provide fair and consistent method of dealing with
alleged offences
 To ensure there are orderly employment relations so
that everyone knows what is expected of them
The essential features of a
disciplinary procedure
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To be in writing and available for everyone
To specify to whom it applies
To be non-discriminatory
To ensure the matters are dealt without unnecessary
delay (i.e. to set up a firm time-frame)
To allow the hearings and the information to be kept
confidential
To state the disciplinary actions which might be taken
To specify the levels of management which have the
authority to take the various forms of disciplinary action
To provide for workers to be accompanied (by a
colleague or a trade union official)
The essential features of a
disciplinary procedure (contd.)
 To provide for workers to be informed about complaints
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against them and where possible all relevant evidence
before the hearing
To give opportunity to workers to state their case before
a decision is reached and to inform them about the
decision
To ensure that, except for gross misconduct, no worker
is dismissed for a first breach of discipline
To ensure that disciplinary action is not taken until the
case has been carefully investigated by the management
To ensure that workers are given an explanation (in
written) for any penalty imposed
To provide the right for appeal (could be established in
separate procedure)
Types of offence
 Vary in different companies
 Depend in the internal regulations and
organisational culture
 Divided in two categories: disciplinary
offence and gross misconduct.
 Examples: absenteeism, timekeeping,
poor performance, failure to obey
organisation rules, e-mail abuse,
threatening behaviour, abuses, etc.
Steps in taking disciplinary
actions
1. Issue formal letter from the employer confirming the
problem
2. Convey a formal meeting giving the right to the worker to
explain his point of view
3. Decide on whether a disciplinary action is justified and
take a decision for:
- improvement note for poor performance;
- written warning;
- final written warning;
- dismissal or other penalty (if previously agreed)
The statutory ‘three-step’
disciplinary procedure
1. Write to the employee notifying them of what they are
alleged to have done wrong – in terms of performance or
conduct; set out the basis for the allegations; and invite
them to a meeting to discuss the matter.
2. Inform the employee of the grounds for making the
allegations and hold a meeting to discuss them – at
which the employee has the right to be accompanied.
Notify the employee of the decision and the right to
appeal.
3. Hold an appeal meeting (if the employee wishes to
appeal) at which the employee has the right to be
accompanied – and inform the employee of the final
decision.
Grievance and disciplinary sanctions in
UK workplaces
 UK 1999 - 91% of workplaces with formal
grievance procedures (only in 30 % they have
been used)
 Dissatisfaction, complaint, formal raising of a
grievance
 UK 1999 - 92% of workplaces with formal
disciplinary procedures
 Absenteeism, poor performance, poor timekeeping,
refusal to obey reasonable instructions ,theft/fraud etc.
Accompaniment
 Supervisor
 Line manager
 Trade union representative
 Colleague, could be from outside the
organization
Unfair dismissal claims
 Largely based on procedure mistakes, not
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on employer unfairness
Qualifying period for unfair dismissal is 12
months
Unfair dismissal award up to £50 000
No waiver clauses in fixed-term contracts
Subject to three main provisions:
 representation, employment tribunals and
detriment
Definitions of Grievance
 “Infliction of wrong or hardship on a person;
injury; oppression” – the Oxford English
Dictionary
 The 3 stages of Pigos and Myers (1977):
 Dissatisfaction – anything that disturbs an
employee, whether or not he expresses it in words
 Complaint: a spoken or written dissatisfaction,
brought to the attention of a supervisor and/or shop
steward
 Grievance – a complaint, which has been formally
presented to a management representative or to a
union official
The grievance procedure
“Indicating what is to be done in the
event of an individual issue or
complaint”
Marchington, Wilkinson, 2000
Formal Grievance Procedure
1. Purpose and scope of the procedure
2. The principles that underline the procedure
3. The stages in grievance procedure (usually 3
stages)
4. Exceptional circumstances (such as reporting to
higher manager for grievance against the direct
manager)
5. The appeal procedure
(Don’t forget: short time limits; provide for
representation; information about the decision
taken; confidentiality of the records kept)
What do employees have
grievance about (IRS 2002)
 Harassment / bullying / sexism /
racism
 Discipline and/or new working
practices
 Working conditions or working hours
 Grading and pay
 Discrimination
Managing discipline in the workplace:
from punishment to performance
 From punitive to corrective discipline
 Improving individual performance through
discipline
 Towards “self-discipline” in contemporary
workplace
 The balance between control and
commitment in the workplace