News: Performance Management
Performance management: Avoid complex tribunal issues, leaders advised
26 September 2008
Leaders in charge of performance management in their organisations should consider employment law and discrimination training to ward off the risk of "time-consuming and complex" tribunal issues, it has been suggested.
Iain Patterson, an employment partner at UK-wide law firm Browne Jacobson, acknowledged to the Health Service Journal that bosses are generally familiar with challenges to disciplinary processes in employment tribunals.
However, he continued, recent years have seen a rise in high-court challenges by doctors facing disciplinary action who accuse their employers of failing to comply with contractual procedures.
"These cases have highlighted the need for employers to ensure their disciplinary procedures are followed and new or varied procedures properly added to their employees' contracts of employment," he remarked.
Once properly incorporated, such procedures should be accurately followed to prevent costly legal challenges, he added.
Fund manager F&C Asset Management highlighted the potential consequences of neglecting management training and discrimination awareness in August, when a London tribunal upheld allegations of bullying and harassment against a former employee.
