12. ORGANISING AROUND GRIEVANCES AND DISCIPLINARY ISSUES

Unions have always understood that many workplace disputes can best be dealt with collectively through collective bargaining or collective grievances. TUC guidance emphasises that tackling issues collectively can:

• help build stronger union organisation in the workplace;

• help to demonstrate the effectiveness of the union;

• involve a wider range of members in the union’s activities;

• lead to new agreement or policies being agreed, once reps tell managers that more members support a grievance;

• ensure that a wider number of individuals benefit from improved conditions; and

• use union resources more efficiently, by reducing the amount of time spent in multiple individual grievance or disciplinary hearings.

As noted in the introduction to this booklet, organising around issues of discipline and grievance is likely to become of increasing importance as access to the employment tribunal is removed for many workers through changes such as the introduction of fees, changes to the service requirement and structural changes to the make-up of the workforce, including fewer permanent staff and more workers with precarious, casualised working arrangements. Agency workers are often particularly reluctant to complain about their treatment at work because of fear of losing their position, which can be a good reason for considering a collective approach.

Tackling issues collectively can raise morale and empower workers, and can enable issues such as stress, workload, presenteeism or sickness absence to be correctly characterised as broad organisational issues. These can then be tackled through a joint reappraisal of working practices and working culture, as opposed to approaching them as if they were matters of individual responsibility or fault on the part of the worker concerned.

Dealing with issues collectively can also make it easier to concentrate on relevant issues, and avoid issues becoming inappropriately personal, polarised, or bogged down in procedure, making it easier for the member of staff to continue working in the workplace after a dispute. However, the TUC emphasises that it is vital to respect the member’s right to privacy and to inform other members about an issue only where this has been agreed with the member.

The TUC guidance on collectivising grievances suggest that reps who receive grievances about issues that could affect other workers across the workforce, for example, access to training, may want to consider and discuss with the member whether:

• other members have already raised similar complaints

• the issue may affect other workers

• collective bargaining or a collective grievance may be a more effective way of dealing with the issue than the individual grievance procedure

When a member is facing a disciplinary issue, the TUC advises reps to consider whether:

• this is a one off case or part of a pattern, which could be the result of poor performance management, lack of management training, bullying, workload issues;

• certain types of worker are being disciplined more than others, for example, black workers or trade union reps?

Information collected might support the case for a revised policy to manage a particular issue.

On an individual level, a well organised display of collective strength is sometimes the only way of securing a just result. A good example is the recent success of railworkers’ union the RMT, who balloted for industrial action to secure the successful reinstatement of unfairly dismissed safety rep Eamonn Lynch in 2011.

Successes should be publicised where possible, to help demonstrate the effectiveness of the union and to share best practice with other reps who may find themselves facing similar situations and to help recruit new members.

Note that the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures does not apply to collective grievances (see para 45).