Employment Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Employment Law - Assignment Example Subsequently, these employees had approached the Managing Director, who confirmed their dismissal, without making any further investigations into the case. He approved the dismissal by simply going through the available paper work relating to the issue. Thereafter, the company had received an ETI claim form and ET3 response form from the Employment Tribunal. Several basic and radical changes were effected to the law pertaining to workplace grievance and disciplinary issues, by the Employment Act 2002. These changes were implemented by the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004, and became effective from 1 October 2004 (Duncan, 2005). The advantage of employing the rules and procedures for addressing disciplinary and grievance issues lies in the fact this promotes fairness and transparency. Such rules and procedures have to be stipulated in a written and unambiguous manner. The development of rules and procedures should involve the employees or their representatives (Code of Practice 1 ACAS Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, 2009). Analysis Under the present statutory provisions, in order to qualify for protection against unfair dismissal, an employee must have completed at least one year of continuous service with the same employer, if he had been appointed prior to 6 April 2012. For those appointed after this date, the qualifying period is 2 years. The sick leave period, holiday period and maternity leave period are also included in the period of service of the employee in the company (Compact Law, 2012). In our present problem, Janice Hall had been working with the company for more than a year. Hence, she is eligible for making a claim of unfair dismissal under the provisions of the Employment Rights Act. However, Kelsey Fields cannot make a claim for unfair dismissal, as she had been working for the company for less than a year. Although, employers are not required to adhere to any statutory disciplinary procedure, the Advisory, Concil iation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures that specify the fundamental principles relating to a fair procedure. An unreasonable failure by an employer to adhere to the provisions of this code can cause the tribunal to enhance the compensation awarded by it to the extent of even 25% (Employment Law Advice, 2011). An employee is entitled to be provided with written notice of dismissal, provided that employee has worked for at least one year in the business establishment of that employer. This is with regard to employees who had commenced work prior to 6 April 2012. However, with regard to employees who had started to work after this date, they should have worked for at least two years (Citizens Advice Guide, 2012). Although Janice had worked for 2 years, no notice of dismissal had been served upon her by the company. This constitutes a gross violation of the statutory fair procedures by the company. At the very least, employers, wh ile addressing disciplinary issues, should carry the required investigations for establishing the facts; convey to the employees the root cause of the problem; conduct a meeting to enable employees to present their case; permit the employee to be accompanied at the meeting; and allow the employee to appeal the decision. In addition, there should be no unreasonable delay and