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Since 1 October 2004, an employer who intends to dismiss an employee with more than one year's service has had to follow a three-stage procedure before doing so. Failure to follow this procedure makes a dismissal automatically unfair.

An employee wishing to bring a grievance against an employer relating to a matter such as discrimination or working time must initiate a three-stage grievance procedure, or a tribunal will not be able to hear any claim by the employee.

On 6 April 2009, all this changed with the implementation of the Employment Act 2008. The three-stage procedures have now been abolished and replaced with an ACAS Code of Practice which is described as voluntary. Amongst some of the principles in the Code are a recommendation that an investigatory should be kept separate from a disciplinary hearing, and the Code places the onus on employees to appeal if they feel that disciplinary sanctions are wrong.

Failure by an employer to follow a particular part of the Code will not lead to automatic unfair dismissal. A tribunal will have to refer to the Code in deciding whether the employer's failure was reasonable. If not, the dismissal may be unfair and compensation may be increased by 25%.

An employee who does not raise a grievance with the employer and simply goes straight to a tribunal with a discrimination claim will have the claim heard by the tribunal, which differs from the pre-6 April situation. Employers may therefore have surprise claims brought against them. However, if the tribunal feels that the employee's failure to follow the Code of Practice (which recommends that grievances be raised formally with the employer) is unreasonable, any compensation awarded to the employee may be reduced by 25%.

6 April 2009