In a recent employment claim the employer's disciplinary
procedure was contractual, as a result, when the employer failed to
follow that procedure in the employment contracts it
breached its contractual obligations towards the employee, which
led the employee's solicitors to bring his claim for substantial
damages in an employment tribunal as a result of the breach.
Our advice to employers is to keep the
disciplinary procedures non-contractual and contained in a
separate non-contractual staff handbook.
When dealing with a disciplinary or grievance whether
contractual or non-contractual, employers need to follow the core
elements of their own disciplinary procedures in all but
exceptional cases.