This chapter first examines the common law rules regulating the variation of the terms of the contract of employment. It focuses on the situation where the employer seeks to unilaterally modify the terms of the employment contract, for instance in light of modern pressures on management to demand greater labour flexibility in order to adapt to changing market conditions. The chapter then moves on to address the ability of the employer to suspend the contract of employment, for instance where the employer suffers a downturn in demand for its products or services, or where an employee may be subject to disciplinary proceedings. Finally, it considers the future trajectory of the common law content of the personal contract of employment.
Chapter
7. The Variation and Suspension of the Personal Employment Contract
Chapter
12. Disciplinary, Dismissal, and Grievance Procedures
During the performance of the employment contract the employer may find it necessary to exercise some form of disciplinary authority over the employee, which may take one of a number of forms, ranging from informal warnings, etc, through to final warning or dismissal. There will also be occasions when the employee will wish to pursue a grievance over the way he is treated, and a suitable grievance procedure is the obvious channel to be used. This chapter discusses disciplinary procedures and grievance procedures, how to draw up such procedures and the conduct of disciplinary hearings; the right to be accompanied; disciplinary rules; and the exercise of disciplinary powers such as suspension, warnings, and other sanctions.
Chapter
15. Wrongful Dismissal
This chapter examines the legal consequences where an employer lawfully or unlawfully terminates the contract of employment. It considers the competing elective theory of termination and automatic theory of termination, along with statutory intervention in the form of minimum periods of notice set out in section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Stress is placed on the importance of using the correct terminology in this area of the law and bilateral, unilateral, and non-lateral terminations are defined. Further discussion covers suspension of contract and the conduct of disciplinary hearings. Finally, the remedies available to employees in the case of a wrongful dismissal are addressed, including the circumstances in which a claim for damages is likely to be successful.
