Disciplinary Hearings and Grievances
Disciplinary hearings and grievances are often far from straightforward. In fact, handling disciplinary hearings and grievances robustly, fairly and in a legally compliant manner can be extremely challenging for employers.
David Roath is an experienced employment law expert and chair of workplace procedures, including grievances and matters of discipline and performance.
As a specialist employment lawyer with over 30 years’ experience, David can act as disciplinary and grievance chair and deliver clear, fair and compliant findings and recommendations.
Find out more about David's background and experience here.
Why choose an independent grievance or disciplinary chair?
Employment law is constantly changing and it can be challenging to keep up to date with the evolving workplace landscape. Getting the procedure right is very important and is a fairness consideration that an employment tribunal will consider in an unfair dismissal claim.
An employer must choose the grievance or disciplinary chair carefully. There are various reasons why you might choose, or need, to appoint an independent grievance or disciplinary chair including:
- Is it a sensitive issue where you would prefer someone from outside of your business?
- Has the manager already been involved?
- Has the manager also been a witness?
- Would it instil more confidence in the process if an independent chair were appointed?
- Has your internal resource got the training, experience, and/or time to handle the grievance?
- Does the matter involve complex employment law issues where appointing an expert would be beneficial and/or prudent?
Mediation
Grievances and matters of discipline can be extremely damaging. If the grievance is against the employer, it can lead to a breakdown in trust and confidence and, as a minimum, a loss of productivity. A grievance between employees will often escalate with allegations and counter-allegations being made. In grievance cases, we suggest you also consider mediation.
Co-chairing or mentored discipline and grievance chairing
You may have an unusually complex case, or an inexperienced chair. An option for you if you don't want to appoint an independent person to hear the case alone is to appoint David as a mentor or co-chair.
David can act as co-chair and, by doing this, can take on some of the key procedural steps, or help your internal manager with the burden.
In such a case, your manager will be the ultimate decision maker but will have help and support with the process.