Clause 3
Employment Bill [Lords]
10:45 am
Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Minister, Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; Huntingdon, Conservative)
Although there are many amendments, they all do pretty much the same thing. They look at what constitutes the defined code of practice in dispute resolution. I shall consider some of the wider issues in the code in the stand part debate. I direct the Committee to the debate in the other place on this matter. Lord Bach, the then Minister, confirmed that six codes were currently issued under chapter 3 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. By his own admission, the drafting of the clause was deliberately wide to allow for flexibility to cover other present or future codes.
While I agree that we have no interest in hamstringing ACAS, there is a need for certainty on this front. Employers are placed in a disproportionately burdensome position whereby they are forced to comply with broadly defined procedures. To prevent undue expense and time-consuming second-guessing of the legislative intention by employers, would it not be prudent to specify the relevant code from the outset as the ACAS code of practice on discipline and grievance procedures? Would that not be preferable to a definition that encompasses six separate procedures but expects compliance with only one? There is a need to give employers a clear, well sign-posted route for dealing fairly and efficiently with disciplinary procedures. It is a course of action that, for most, is a last resort. It benefits neither the employer nor employee to have an opaque legislative procedure, which leaves both parties in the dark. This is especially true given the financial penalties for non-compliance.