Member Article

Overview of the Gibbons Review

Gibbons Review set to abolish statutory dismissal, disciplinary and grievance procedures

With Watson Burton LLP Law Firm

In March this year, the Department of Trade and Industry (now renamed the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) published the results of the Gibbons Review, an independent review of the employment dispute resolution procedures. In total, the Review proposed 17 recommendations which aim to refine and simplify the current system. Among the proposed changes, employment tribunal procedures will be made more user-friendly from the application stage onwards and the fixed ACAS conciliation periods will be abolished.

The proposal which is likely to have the most radical impact on the everyday running of an employer’s workforce is the abolition of the statutory dismissal, disciplinary and grievance procedures. Currently, employers who wish to dismiss an employee are obliged to follow a three stage procedure compromising a warning letter, disciplinary meeting and an appeal. Otherwise, the employer runs the risk that the dismissal may be found to be unfair.

The Review found that the mandatory nature of these procedures meant that many workplace disputes which could have been resolved informally, were pushed to a formal stage. Due to the complexity of the statutory procedures, the parties were seeking legal advice at an even earlier stage since they were unsure of how to proceed in a manner which would satisfy the procedural requirements. In addition, there were some situations where the procedures were simply wholly inappropriate, such as redundancy. The statutory grievance procedure put greater pressure on employers, who felt it necessary to review all employee correspondence and records for any suggestion of a complaint or expression of dissatisfaction which might constitute a grievance to be dealt with.

The conclusions reached by the Review were that earlier and better access to alternative dispute resolution procedures is required combined with better quality advice for the parties at an earlier stage to enable them to understand the options available. The statutory procedures should be replaced by voluntary guidelines based on the ACAS code, with incentives for employers to comply and sanctions for those who do not make sufficient efforts.

The subsequent consultation process finished on 20 June 2007, and it is anticipated that the proposed Employment Simplification Bill will implement the findings of the Gibbons Review.

If you have any queries in relation to this article, or any other employment matter, please contact Lucy Bond at Watson Burton LLP (email: lucy.bond@watsonburton.com or telephone 0113 235 5455).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .