30 November 2011
The Employment Forum is consulting on employee representation in workplace disciplinary and grievance hearings.
The employment law gives employees the right to be represented in formal disciplinary and grievance hearings by a work colleague, or a trade union employee or official. A code of practice sets out reasonable processes around disciplinary and grievance procedures.
The chairman of the Employment Forum, Helen Ruelle, said: “We are asking if there are any circumstances in which it would be reasonable for an employer to consider permitting employees to be represented by other types of representative.
"There may be circumstances in which a family member, for example, as a representative might be unreasonable, such as where the hearing will deal with commercially sensitive information. Equally, there might be circumstances in which different types of representatives might be reasonable, such as where an employee is vulnerable. The forum hopes to hear both positive and negative experiences of workplace representation, from employees, employers and representatives themselves.”
Prompted by a proposition from the former Deputy of St Martin in July 2011, the former Social Security Minister, Senator Ian Gorst, directed the forum to consult on this matter.
Consultation closes on 19 January 2012, after which the Forum will consider the responses and prepare a recommendation for presentation to the Social Security Minister in March 2012.
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