Status quo agreements

Sometimes unions have managed to negotiate “status quo” agreements in grievance procedures. A status quo agreement is an agreement that until all stages in a dispute resolution procedure have been resolved, the “status quo” will be maintained. In other words, the parties will continue to follow the management rules and practices in place before the change that has led to the grievance and no worker will be disciplined for doing this. Status quo agreements are of most importance where management try to impose changes to terms and conditions.

It is important to remember that unless a written grievance procedure contains a clear “status quo” agreement, there is no rule that just because a grievance has been taken out, the status quo must be preserved until the grievance procedure has been exhausted. In the absence of a status quo agreement, an employee who refuses to implement a change on the ground that a grievance process has not yet been completed risks being fairly dismissed for failing to obey a lawful instruction (see Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster) v Marshall UKEAT/0488/009, discussed in Chapter 7).