The Employment Relations Act 1999 introduced a statutory right for workers to be accompanied at disciplinary and grievance hearings. To supplement the Act, ACAS released a new Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures which updates existing ACAS guidelines and explains how the statutory right to be accompanied should operate.

But what does the right to accompany mean? What if the employer does not have a grievance or disciplinary procedure? What does ‘natural justice’ amount to in a disciplinary hearing? Can a grievance be taken on any issue relating to employment? This publication, written by two experts in the field, considers the nature of ‘rights’ at work and looks in some detail at how the new law and Code of Practice will operate in the workplace.