DTI launches consultation on whether the statutory dispute resolution procedures should be abolished

The DTI’s consultation follows a wide-ranging independent review of methods for resolving disputes in the workplace, commissioned by the Secretary of State. The key recommendation of the review is that the government should repeal the statutory dispute resolution procedures which came into force in 2004.

Despite the good intentions behind the 2004 Dispute Resolution Regulations, the Gibbons Review concluded that they ‘had unintended consequences that outweighed their benefits’.

Besides this key recommendation, the independent review also recommends the following:

Repeal the statutory dispute resolution procedures set out in the Dispute Resolution Regulations 2004.
Produce clear, simple, non-prescriptive guidelines on grievances, discipline and dismissal in the workplace, for both employers and employees.
Ensure there are incentives to comply with the new guidelines, by maintaining and expanding employment tribunals’ discretion to take into account reasonableness of behaviour and procedure when making awards and cost orders.
Challenge all employer and employee organisations to commit to implementing and promoting early dispute resolution.
Introduce a new, simple process to settle monetary disputes on issues such as wages, redundancy and holiday pay, without the need for tribunal hearings.
Increase the quality of advice to potential claimants and respondents, through an adequately resourced helpline and the internet, including alerting them to the realities of tribunal claims and the potential benefits of alternative dispute resolution to achieve more satisfactory and speedier outcomes.
Redesign the employment tribunal application process, so that potential claimants access it through the helpline and receive advice on alternatives when doing so.
Offer a free early dispute resolution service, including, where appropriate, mediation, before a tribunal claim is lodged for those disputes likely to benefit from it. The Government should pilot this approach.
Offer incentives to use early resolution techniques by giving employment tribunals discretion to take into account the parties’ efforts to settle the dispute, when making awards and cost orders.
Abolish the fixed periods which currently exist for ACAS to conciliate.
Simplify employment law, recognising that its complexity creates uncertainty and costs for employers and employees.
Simplify the employment tribunal claim and response forms, encouraging claimants to give a succinct statement or estimate of loss.
Unify the time limits on employment tribunal claims and the grounds for extension of those time limits.
Empower employment tribunals to simplify the management of so-called ‘multiple-claimant’ cases where many claimants are pursuing the same dispute with the same employer.
Encourage employment tribunals to engage in active, early case management and consistency of practice in order to maximise efficiency and direction throughout the system, and to increase user confidence in it.
Review the circumstances in which it is appropriate for employment tribunal chairs to sit alone, in order to ensure that lay members are used in a way that adds most value.
Consider whether employment tribunals have appropriate powers to deal with weak and vexatious claims and, if so, whether the tribunals use them consistently.

The DTI has now issued a consultation entitled ‘Resolving disputes in the workplace’, which seeks views on a wide range of issues arising out of the recommendations of the independent review. EEF will be submitting a detailed response - the consultation closing date is 20 June 2007.