Relationship Between Organizational Changes, Employment Issues And Legislative Role In Employment Relations

Key components of a fair disciplinary process

1) Demonstrate the relationship between organisational changes at work, employee relations and wider social and economic background .

2) Identify the causes of disputes arising from employment issues and the methods used to mitigate and remove these .

3) Evaluate the role of legislation including European law employment relations.

Disciplinary situations include issues arising out of misconduct and poor performance and even if there are separate procedures to address specific issues, the Code of Practice laid down by ACAS should still be followed. It takes years for an organization to build a good name and reputations and a lot more years to become widely known as an employee friendly company (Jex & Britt, 2008). The various actions taken by the company in the name of rules, regulations or discipline are also instrumental in building the name and image of the company or distorting it, depending on how the company uses it.

Disciple is the action taken by the management that helps in activities of compliance and meet the standard of the organization. It helps to transform the employees and helps in getting enhanced performance.  The components are:

Preventive discipline – This action is taken so that employees can be encouraged that helps in following the standards and rules to avoid any indiscipline. The personnel Department plays a vital role in preventive discipline.  The rules are communicated to the employees, conduct training and counsel employees. In dealing with employees of stern nature, operating managers are needed to diagnose both the internal, as well as external environment.

Corrective discipline – when non-compliance happens this action is used. In short, a mechanism is termed corrective discipline and like a warning or even a suspension.

To promote transparency and fairness, there should be rules and procedures, which are specific and clear and in writing. It is also essential to involve employees, and their representatives in the development of the rules and procedures, and they should understand where it is found and how it should be used. Disciplinary process should be a vital component of the organization because it helps in meeting the objectives and provides benefits to the employee in a variety of ways.

Wherever any form of action is required to be taken, whether the action taken is appropriate and reasonable will be justified by the facts and circumstances of the case. As it might not be practically possible for all employers o follow the code in all cases, the employer tribunals will take into consideration the size and resources of the employer while deciding on a relevant case (Aube & Rousseau, 2011).

Evaluation of the challenges faced in the implementation of the disciplinary process

The Labor Relations Act considers three grounds on which the termination of an employment depends that is the misconduct of an employee, incapacity of an employee to do the job and the operational need of the employer. However, the employee must have strong reasons for dismissal and a procedure that is fair in nature.

Misconduct

The most common ground where dismissal is done is the misconduct of the employee. In this scenario, the employee is terminated on the grounds of breach of disciplinary rule that were imposed by the employer. There are various scenarios like insolence, theft, assault, intoxication, etc. to ascertain whether a dismissal was fair, the courts, as well as arbitrators have considered various factors like service duration, record discipline, employer disciplinary code, common law principles that relates to the employment contract.

Incapacity

Incapacity also termed as incapability assumes two positions. The initial is whether the employee has the capability of doing the job for which he was employed as due to lack of skill, ability, efficiency, knowledge that is needed to meet the standards needed by the employer. Dismissals in such scenario are termed as dismissal for poor performance. The second scenario is when the employee is incapable of doing the job due to injury. Incapacity is different from misconduct by the fact that in the case of misconduct some idea of culpability on the part of the employee is structured. The dismissals in form of incapacity involves behavior that is not intentional in nature or not negligent.

There are some elements to be dealt with while following a disciplinary or grievance process that can be listed as below:

Highlighting of issues and grievances

The issues of the employers and employees should be raised promptly without unnecessary delays in the communication, meetings, decisions, confirmations, approvals, so on and so forth. This will lead to better act, and hence, the grievance will be solved in a positive manner. The necessary investigation and research should be carried out to determine the exact facts of the case, and both the employer and employee should act consistently.

Strong level of awareness

The employees should be made aware of the basis of the problem, and the subsequent consequences of the same and the employees should be given a chance to be heard and a chance to put forward their arguments, response and decisions for the case (Block, 2011). This communication process between the employer and employee can be accompanied by a formal the disciplinary or grievance meeting also. The opportunity to make a formal appeal against any decision of the employer should be provided to the employee (Block, 2011).

The Disciplinary process in most cases is accompanied by the suspension of pay and issuing written warnings. The challenges faced in the process are discussed below:

Communication process

The decision about the mode and medium of communication: To maintain a tone of professionalism in the process, it is necessary to decide upon the most appropriate medium of communication as the employees might interpret it in a different way. The interpretation is necessary because the issue needs to be understood in the correct manner Otherwise, the effort will end in vain. The purpose of the disciplinary process is to make employees more productive and to contribute positively to the organization (Dollard & Bakker, 2010). The discussions and meetings during the disciplinary process should not send out a message of a punishing tone. The disciplinary process acts as a safeguard to the employees as it helps in understanding them and enables the completion of work. It raises the level of work.

Confidentiality

Apart from this, confidentiality is an important element in the disciplinary process that is found difficult to achieve in most cases as the co-workers are bound to become aware of the proceedings and discuss about the same which in turn spreads possibly to other departments and might induce negativity about the employer (Clarke, 2013). It is essential to provide specific examples of the rule violations and performance discrepancies to make the employee fully understand about the corrective actions required. This is found lacking in most cases.

Internal policies

There could also be a few drawbacks in the internal policies and documentation done by the company that is found during the disciplinary process. Therefore, the employer might lose the case in such times if the actual problem is not investigated completely in depth and not all the legal formalities are met. Coaching and performance appraisal is often taken for granted by employers due to which undue justice is denied to the employees. The disciplinary process also in many cases proves to be of no impact. If the employer has anyhow decided to sack the employee or if the employee has also firmly decided to leave the organization, then the disciplinary proceedings are only a formality and for ornamental purpose.

Another big challenge faced by the employer is the list of unreasonable requests from the employee and bringing the employer to a do or die situation, which in most cases might be difficult for the employer to negotiate or bring the issue to talking terms.

Thus, for an outsider, it might be difficult to say whether the disciplinary proceedings are being carried out in a fair and transparent manner. The organization carrying out many disciplinary processes might be viewed as a strict company from outside thought the actual performance of the employees is not seen by the outer world in these cases.

Code of Professional Conduct or CIPD is the voice of the entire community that contains more than 135,000 members that strives to provide better work and working lives. It proposes high standards of entry for membership and prescribes all its members to adhere to the behaviors that is set in the Professional conduct. The CIPD regulation contains all the procedures and any allegation can be considered through a reference to it. In short, it strives for HR and people development. It brings transparency and helps the employer to deal with the matter effectively as there are valid rules and regulations.

In the case of Bethnal Green and Shoreditch Education Trust vs Dippenaar, the Employment Appellate Tribunal held that the dismissal of a long-serving teacher was not discriminatory against the appointment of a young teacher since the long-serving teacher had to be paid more. Thus, there was no discrimination of age in this case nor did the other long serving teachers suffer from any particular disadvantage (Coyne & Garvin, 2013).

In the case of Craig vs Bob Lindfield and Son Ltd, the employee was laid off for four, half weeks without pay since there was a genuine downturn in the work, and the employee resigned after the layoff. It was held by the EAT that the employer had legitimately followed the statutory provisions, and there is no implied term that the layoff should be a reasonable period.  

In the case of Peninsula Business Services Ltd vs. Donaldson, the EAT held that it was not discriminatory to discontinue child care vouchers during maternity leave as  vouchers cannot be provided at a time when there is no salary sacrifice by the employees.

Off late as globalization is becoming widespread, employees of different religions are found working in different countries. In such cases, there is an additional duty cast on the employer to accommodate the religious beliefs of the employees though not much protection is available for the employees. Thus, employers have been considering the advantages and disadvantages of providing a reasonable accommodation concerning the religious accommodation and in different cases different approaches are being adopted (Duane & Sydney, 2010). Still, corporate are increasingly trying to accommodate different religious beliefs as the awareness is spread.

Management of Disciplinary Process:

Virgin Atlantic is a leading airline company driving solutions for the industry. The Disciplinary Process at Virgin Atlantic is grounded on a few basic principles that are as below:

Employees should be paid a fair wage which is essentially the living wage defined as the amount required to meet the basic needs of the employee and family. Employees should be given an easy to read and interpret contract for their duties, roles and responsibilities including their rights and the appeal procedures. Employees should be provided with a full and appropriate training for carrying out the duties on the job. Employees should not be penalized through wage deductions because of the disciplinary proceedings. Employees should not suffer any discrimination on the grounds of age, gender, race, religion, and disability, freedom of association, political affiliation or medical condition.

Appropriate protection against harmful situations or hazardous products should be offered to the employees.

Analysis of management of disciplinary process through policies, procedures and practices:

Virgin Atlantic has a sustainable procurement policy which defines the working conditions, work environment, business ethics and supplier engagement process. As there are policies and procedures in place for every item, it becomes feasible for Virgin to deal with the disciplinary issues. The employment contracts also contain the policies to be followed and the implications of flouting the same, the legal actions that can be taken by the company, so on and so forth. The work environment is thus created which enables the systems and procedures to be implemented will little efforts. The success of the organization thus lies in the drafting of policies and procedures in such a way that the company can deal with its disciplinary issues in-house which is the case with Virgin Atlantic. For this reason, there is not much public data available on the reported disciplinary issues of Virgin Atlantic on the internet or such other sources.

A company has different departments, policies and procedures set out for each department and various laws, regulations, statutory compliances are applicable on the various Acts. Thus, the policies drafted by the company have to be in consonance with the statues and with the other respective departments (Deckers, 2010).

In an incident that occurred in 2008, it was found that a small number of staff had criticized the safety standards of the airlines on social networking sites. This led to negative publicity and the airline added that safety was a top priority and they operate the aircraft under strict compliance and all the safety precautions.

For this reason, Virgin Australia launched disciplinary proceedings against its own crew. This matter was taken very seriously, and so it sacked 13 members as a part of its disciplinary process. The employee behavior was considered very inappropriate and brought disrepute for the company. Thus, this disciplinary action taken by Virgin was perfectly in line with its code of conduct and did not require any approvals or further discussions.

From the available sources, it can be understood that there are not much aspects of the disciplinary processes that have potential tension with other HR Policies and practices. Virgin Atlantic’s equal opportunity policy is in line with the other policies.

The company can restrain the employees from going more public on the social networking sites and explaining the difference between personal lives and professional lives. It can be achieved be effective mentoring and demonstration of the implications of such actions (Bowling et. al, 2010).

Virgin is known for its low staff turnover and involvement of the staff in the cross-functional sharing and training. This keeps the employees satisfied and motivated.

Virgin should conduct a disciplinary action for the employees. An in-flight wish list can be distributed to the passengers where they can write freely what they require as this will avoid complaints at a later stage. The range of penalties that can be imposed should be well defined, and the employees should be made fully aware of the same. There should be an in-house appeal mechanism with the highest authority to which an appeal can be made in certain cases (Griffin & Clarke, 2010).

The disciplinary procedures should be reviewed constantly to make amendments in the light of changing circumstances and to keep it updated periodically. The new laws, legislations, decided case studies could all be kept as a center point for these updates.  A good disciplinary process involves in some stages starting with raising the matter with the immediate manager in the first case and then delegating it appropriately to the respective stage (Barmes et. al, 2007).

Where required, the disciplinary and grievance issues can also be solved on a personal or informal basis. This can also go on a long way in skipping the formalities of compliances and procedures. The steps in the disciplinary process should be progressive as the purpose of the disciplinary proceedings is to arrive at a consensus and a more peaceful work environment both for the employer and the employee (Pinder, 2008).

Conclusion

It is thus seen how the company to maintain law and order in place on one hand and extract the best out of the employee on the other hand, if used as an effective tool, can use disciplinary procedures positively (Smith & Mazin, 2004). The disciplinary process is important as it helps the HR to maintain a strong decorum and helps in achievement of the objectives. It is the main duty of the HR to have a strong disciplinary process in action that will act as a strong statement and keep the work in momentum. However, there are various challenges in the way that needs to be faced to ensure that the best practice is into implementation (Harrison, 2005). The disciplinary process is beneficial to the employees and the organization because in one way it helps the employees by strong standards and on the other it helps the management to get things done in a smooth manner. Therefore, it serves a dual process and hence, the management must have a strong disciplinary process into action.

References:

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Deckers, L 2010, Motivation; Biological, Psychological and Environmental, Boston, MA: Pearson

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Duane, P & Sydney, E.S 2010,  Psychology and work today : an introduction to industrial and organizational psychology, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. 

Griffin, M.A, & Clarke, S 2010, Stress and well-being at work. APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, Washington, DC

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Jex., S.M.,  & Britt, T.W 2008, Organizational Psychology, Hoboken, New Jersey.

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Smith, S. A., & Mazin, R 2004, Training and Development: The HR Answer Book, American Management.