Disciplinary & Grievance Procedures
As a small business with only a few staff, you may feel the need to keep control, and have the flexibility to take what actions or decisions you feel are right for you & the business. Unfortunately for you, you’ll quickly find this is the wrong way.
For many small employers, the idea of completing a disciplinary or grievance hearing for your staff is beyond consideration – small employers often seem to have a misconceived view that, as the boss, you can tell your staff what’s what, discipline or dismiss staff on a whim, or pay little more than lip-service to any concerns of the employee; “leave the big companies, with their own HR department, to address disciplinary or grievance matters. I’m in charge here, and I say what or who goes”.
There are in fact minimum disciplinary & grievance procedures set-out in law, and a failure to follow these will quickly lead to a claim against the employer. And to rub salt into the wounds, a successful claim could be uplifted by as much as 50% (of an average £8,000 - see Employment Tribunals - that's another £4,000 potential costs against you) if you have not got the right policies in place, or have not adhered to these properly.
Putting an appropriate policy in place, and ensuring this is available to all staff (this has to be provided to staff within 2 months of them commencing their employment – see our Contracts of Employment page for more details) need not be difficult, time-consuming, or expensive. The Employment Law Clinic can discuss your needs, based on the number of staff & managers in your business, and can also advise you when & how these policies need to be used in practice.
If you already have staff in place, and you haven’t provided these policies yet, don’t delay in contacting the Employment Law Clinic - call us now on 020 3239 0569 or email disciplinary@employmentlawclinic.com, and we’ll advice you on how to correct this omission, and get your business implementing & applying the right policies the right way.