T. 8 Grievance and discipline

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T. 8 Grievance and discipline
Human Resources Management

• D. Borisova

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Aspects

• 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Five Managers musts

• Fairness
• Reasonableness
• Consistency
• Operating with just cause
• Operating within the law

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Institutionalization of conflict in the
employment relationship (UK, 1960)

• Industrial Relation Act (1971) and the concept of
  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 GD procedures
• Employment Relation Act (1999) the right to be
  accompanied
• Employment Act 2002/2003 the removal of 20
  employee threshold

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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

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The essential features of a disciplinary procedure

• 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)

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The essential features of a disciplinary
procedure (contd.)

• To provide for workers to be informed about
  complaints 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)

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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Accompaniment

• Supervisor
• Line manager
• Trade union representative
• Colleague, could be from outside the organization

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Unfair dismissal claims

• Largely based on procedure mistakes, not 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

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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

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The grievance procedure

• Indicating what is to be done in the event of an
  individual issue or complaint
• Marchington, Wilkinson, 2000

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Formal Grievance Procedure

• Purpose and scope of the procedure
• The principles that underline the procedure
• The stages in grievance procedure (usually 3
  stages)
• Exceptional circumstances (such as reporting to
  higher manager for grievance against the direct
  manager)
• The appeal procedure
• (Dont forget short time limits provide for
  representation information about the decision
  taken confidentiality of the records kept)

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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

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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