Discipline and grievance procedures and the employment contract

You can choose whether to include disciplinary and grievance procedures in the employment contract. However, if you do and you fail to follow the procedures, you will be in breach of the contract. The procedures should be included in the written statement, or in a separate document - like the staff handbook - which should be referred to in the written statement.

See our guide on the employment contract, or use our interactive tool to create a written statement of employment.

The legal position

It is a legal requirement for  your written statements of employment particulars to include your dismissal, disciplinary, and grievance procedures or say where they can be found. These procedures must reflect minimum statutory requirements. Failure to provide this information to your employees may result in an employee being awarded two or four weeks' pay if they succeed in an employment tribunal claim against you.

When thinking about dismissal or relevant disciplinary action you must follow the statutory procedure. Failure to do so may result in:

• a dismissal being held by an employment tribunal to be automatically unfair
• possible increased compensation being awarded to your employee by an employment tribunal

You must also:

• Include in employees' written statements of employment the name of the person to whom they should apply if they are unhappy about a disciplinary or dismissal decision, or to seek redress for a grievance, and any further steps which follow on from applying.
• Allow any worker who is required or invited to attend certain types of non-trivial disciplinary and grievance hearing to be accompanied by a fellow worker, ie another person in your workforce, or trade union official of their choice. This is a statutory right and should you fail, or threaten to fail, to comply with this right then a worker may present a complaint to an employment tribunal.