We write your disciplinary and grievance procedures into the HR policies and staff handbook pack, from £1,495 +VAT, so that a dismissal follows a process a tribunal will accept.
When a dismissal is challenged, a tribunal asks whether you had a fair reason and whether you followed a fair process to reach it. The benchmark for that process is the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.
A tribunal can raise or lower an award by up to 25% where one side unreasonably failed to follow the Code. A written procedure, followed every time, is how you show you did.
Find out the facts before deciding anything. Speak to the people involved and keep what they say.
If it is skipped, you cannot show the decision was reasonable.
Set out the allegation and the evidence, and invite them to a meeting with enough notice to prepare.
If it is skipped, they meet the case for the first time in the room.
They may bring a colleague or a trade union representative, under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999.
Refusing a companion breaches a statutory right.
Tell them the outcome and the reasons, and what happens if the conduct is repeated.
Reasons left vague get argued about later.
Heard where possible by someone who was not part of the first decision.
Without an appeal, the other side has a procedural flaw to point to.
The handbook carries both, because they meet. Employees often raise a grievance in the middle of a disciplinary, and the Acas Code allows you to pause the disciplinary to deal with it, or to handle both together where they are about the same thing.
You raise a concern about an employee’s conduct or performance. The procedure sets out the warnings, who decides, and when dismissal is on the table.
An employee raises a concern about their work, a colleague or a manager. The procedure sets out who hears it, the meeting, the written outcome and the appeal.
The HR policies and staff handbook pack, agreed in writing before work starts. Subscribers pay from £1,345.50 +VAT.
You and your managers run it, following the procedure step by step. Running a live disciplinary for you and attending hearings are priced separately from the pack.
For someone to ask before each step, Virtual HR Manager at £499 +VAT a month includes the handbook and answers employment questions before you act, on a twelve-month agreement.
If a claim has already been issued, see employment tribunal defence. We defend tribunal claims ourselves, with our employment lawyer associate, at a fixed price for each stage. Court work goes to AD Solicitors (SRA no. 8011228). Work carried out by AD Solicitors carries the full SRA framework, including the compensation fund and the Legal Ombudsman. Work we carry out ourselves does not.
Buzz Legal handles contracts, terms of trade, employment paperwork and dispute preparation. Court work, and the other activities reserved by law, are carried out by AD Solicitors, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (no. 8011228), and you are told which yours is before you spend anything. How this works, in full. This is information, not advice on your situation.
Write down what has happened so far, with dates.
Follow the five steps from this point on, even if the start was messy.
Take advice before you put anything else in writing to the employee.
Yes, in practice. The Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures applies to employers of every size, and a tribunal can adjust an award by up to 25% where an employer unreasonably failed to follow it. A written procedure, given to staff and followed each time, is how a small business shows that it did.
Yes. Under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 a worker invited to a disciplinary or grievance hearing may be accompanied by a colleague or a trade union representative. The procedure says so in the letter inviting them, and sets out what the companion may and may not do at the meeting.
Yes. Unfair dismissal claims generally need two years’ continuous service today, and that drops to six months on 1 January 2027 under the Employment Rights Act 2025. Discrimination and whistleblowing claims need no qualifying service at all, and neither do the automatically unfair reasons for dismissal. A short-serving employee can still bring a claim about how they were treated.
Disciplinary and grievance procedures come in the HR policies and staff handbook pack, from £1,495 +VAT, or from £1,345.50 +VAT for subscribers. The figure is agreed in writing before work starts. Shift patterns, sector rules or several groups of staff on different terms can make it a bigger job, and you get the figure first.
Running a live disciplinary and attending hearings are priced separately from the handbook pack. The procedure tells you what to do at each step. Virtual HR Manager, at £499 +VAT a month on a twelve-month agreement, includes the handbook and gives you someone to ask before you act.
The number of people you employ, what you have in writing now, and whether there is a problem with someone today. You get back a fixed price before any work starts. See the privacy policy for how we use your details.
From £1,495 +VAT, agreed in writing before work starts.
