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17 August 2016 / Charles Pigott
Issue: 7713 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Decoding the code

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Charles Pigott studies the application of ACAS Code of Practice to non-disciplinary dismissals
  • Two recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decisions have confirmed that, strictly speaking, the ACAS Code of Practice does not apply to dismissals unless there is a disciplinary element.
  • However the Code’s key principles may be relevant to determining fairness in other kinds of dismissals.

The code with which we are concerned is the most familiar of the statutory codes of practice issued by the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). The Code of Practice on discipline and grievance procedures (the Code) was first published in 1977 and was most recently re-issued in 2015.

Originally s 207 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A 1992) simply gave employment tribunals discretion to take into account any provision of a statutory code of practice that appeared to be “relevant to any question arising in the proceedings” before it.

However s 207A of TULR(C)A 1992, introduced in 2009 to fill the vacuum left by the repeal of the statutory dispute resolution procedures,

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