Workplace dispute resolution proposals In March 2007 the Department for Trade and Industry launched a consultation exercise on improving the way that employment disputes are resolved, while preserving existing employees’ rights in England, Wales and Scotland. The Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland will consult on similar proposals for Northern Ireland. The consultation follows on from an independent review commissioned by the government in December 2006. The report, as prepared by former Powergen director Michael Gibbons, sets out a package of measures to simplify and improve all aspects of employment dispute resolution in Great Britain for employers and employees. Workplace disputes can be expensive for employers in terms of lost productivity and financial costs, as well as stressful for employees as they seek access to justice. One of the cornerstones of the report is to repeal the statutory dispute resolution procedures introduced in October 2004 with the aim of cutting the number of employment tribunal claims, which could otherwise have been resolved informally in the workplace. In the place of the procedures there should be clear and concise guidelines on grievance, discipline and dismissal in the workplace. Incentives to comply with the new guidelines are to be given in the form of greater discretion for employment tribunals to penalise those who make little or no attempt to resolve their dispute before a formal tribunal hearing. Such penalties will take into account reasonableness of behaviour and procedure when making awards and cost orders. The report questions whether there should be further support for alternative dispute resolution to be achieved through greater emphasis on the use of in-house mediation, early neutral evaluation and use of mediation provisions in employment contracts. Beyond the workplace measures for consideration to help employees and employers resolve disputes include: Settlement of monetary disputes relating to issues such as wages, redundancy and holiday pay without the need for a formal tribunal hearing; Introducing a new free advice service on dispute resolution accessible by telephone and internet; and Abolishing the fixed time periods during within which ACAS must conciliate. This would give ACAS a clear remit to conciliate in any employment tribunal claim, at any stage in the process, where the parties wished it to do so. The employment tribunal system itself should be made easier and cheaper to use for all parties concerned. Specific recommendations are: Simpler claim and response forms removing requirements for unnecessary and legalistic detail; Unified time limits for claims (three or six months or another time period) and the grounds for extension of those limits; Encouragement for employment tribunals to be involved in active, early case management; and Granting tribunals additional powers to strike out weak and vexatious claims at an early stage. For the report and its proposals in detail visit: www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page38508.html. The consultation closes on 20 June 2007 and the Government welcomes views from all interested parties. E-mail responses can be submitted to disputereview@dti.gsi.gov.uk. The Government will consider the responses to the consultation and then publish their response, setting out how it intends to proceed. Paul Tew, Pay Magazine Snowdrop provides a range of Payroll solutions that are fast, flexible and easy-to-use, to suit the many and varied needs of each organisation. To find out more about the software and services that we provide, please click here >>