Discipline, Grievances and Dismissal

One
09:00 - Registration and coffee
09:30 - Introduction and background to grievances, discipline
· The employment law environment
· Contractual and statutory contexts
· The Acas Code of Practice and guidance

10:30 - Coffee
10:45 - A focus on grievance procedures - the law
· What is a grievance?
· Handling grievances quickly and fairly
· Examining the ACAS Code of Practice on grievances
· Standard and modified statutory grievance procedures
· Conducting grievance interviews and the right to be accompanied

12:30 - Lunch
13:30 - A focus on disciplinary procedures - the law; with case study exercises
· When does a disciplinary situation arise?
· Examining the disciplinary process and procedures: a best practice overview
· Standard and modified statutory discipline procedures
· The investigation: a comprehensive, structured approach
· Formal disciplinary hearings: an overview
· Using documentation: effective warning letters

14:30 - Coffee
14:45 - A focus on disciplinary procedures - continued
Participants will again be given the opportunity to apply the law and procedures in an interactive case study discussion.

16:30 - End of day one

Day Two
09:00 - Registration and coffee
09:30 - Key aspects of dismissal law
· The basics of dismissal: 'wrongful', 'unfair' and 'constructive'
· Statutory reasons for dismissal
· Considering essential elements of unfair dismissals
· What are fair reasons for dismissal?
· Fairness: the essence of 'reasonableness'
· Examining automatically unfair dismissals and group dismissals
· Handling redundancies: key components of the process

10:30 - Coffee
10:45 - Key aspects of dismissal law - continued
· Payments in lieu of notice
· Settling and compromise agreements
· Remedies for unfair dismissal
· Managing short-term persistent absence and long-term continuous absence
· Stress and stress-related absence: guidelines for best practice
· Dealing with poor performance, misconduct outside the workplace and email/internet abuse
· Case law update

12:45 - Lunch
13:30 - Disciplinary meetings and appeals
This session enhances knowledge through applied learning. Participants will be given the opportunity to put key stages of the disciplinary meeting into practice with the objective of learning a comprehensive step-by-step approach. Feedback will be given by our expert trainer.

Key areas of learning:
· Handling a disciplinary matter
· Establishing facts, fairness and consistency
· What is the role of counseling?
· Arranging and preparing interviews
· Listening, questioning and discussion
· Dealing with witnesses: evidence, statements, confidentiality and bias
· Deciding on and implementing disciplinary action

14:45 - Coffee
16:00 - Employment tribunal claims: outline of the new scene
· What are the current tribunal rules?
· An overview of terminology and forms
· The cost regime

16:30 - End of day two