Expert View: Jaw Jaw Not War War!
There has been a huge rise in the number of claims to the Employment Tribunal according to recent figures. A 25% increase sees the number of applications rising to over the 150,000 mark for the first time. This news may invoke some raising of eyebrows among the Merseyside business community, after all it seems like only yesterday that the government changed the law to help bring the number of tribunal claims down.
Actually it was 2004 and the idea behind the law change was to encourage employers and employees to sort out their arguments in the workplace, face to face rather than reverting to law. The theory was great but, as often is the case, the practice was somewhat different.
In 2004 a three-step disciplinary and grievance procedure was introduced which employers and employees had to comply with before going to employment tribunal. A following government review in 2006 found that the procedures often meant that issues that could have been dealt with informally became formal and more legalistic, as managers tended to focus on complying with procedures rather than dealing with the problem.
More bad news is the cost of reverting to law. There are no real winners when it comes to Employment Tribunals (with the honourable exception of the legal profession!). Going to tribunal is expensive and time consuming and damningly, very rarely resolves the underlying reason for the conflict arising in the first place.
The average cost to business of defending an Employment Tribunal claim is estimated to be around £9,000. Multiply that cost by the 151,249 claims last year and you get a feel for the necessity for reform. It’s not much better from an employee’s perspective either. While the financial costs of going to Tribunal may not be as great as the employers’, it has to be said that there are significant non financial costs such as increased stress and damaged future employment prospects.
So, where’s the good news? The recent review highlighted that sorting out workplace problems more informally can help reduce costs, time, resources and indeed a good deal of stress for the people concerned. So, from April 2009 the three-step procedure will be repealed and replaced by a new Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. Resolving workplace problems will become more straightforward. Employees and employers will have more flexibility to choose how best to resolve their problems. There will be more scope to resolve a disagreement informally and without the involvement of people from outside.
Trying to resolve disciplinary and grievance issues can be enormously expensive in terms of time and money for organisations of any size if these issues are left unmanaged.
Effective managers try to resolve issues informally at an early stage and by doing so there is much more likelihood of the resolution being more long lasting. Going to tribunal to resolve disputes really ought to be the last resort. Very rarely does the outcome from a tribunal provide a solution for an ongoing relationship between employer and employee. By employers and employees (and their representatives) actually talking to each other, listening to each other and seeing issues from the other side’s perspective, by having (sometimes) difficult conversations early on in the process, by nipping things in the bud, employers can save time and money. And the really good news is that this will enable them to focus on their core business.
As a further result of the government review, Acas Helpline and conciliation services have expanded to enable employers and employees to access free, independent assistance to help them resolve disputes as early as possible. The Acas Helpline number is 08457 474747
Acas also offers training and advice to all employers and employees in a wide variety of employment relationship issues which will include the new Code of Practice.
Rob Vondy
ACAS
0151 728 5624
