Under section 10 Employment Relations Act 1999 (the Act), workers have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union representative to disciplinary or grievance hearings.
For the purposes of the Act, a disciplinary hearing includes a hearing which could result in a formal warning being imposed or some other action being taken. The right could therefore apply to capability meetings, disciplinary meetings, and meetings outside a formal process (for example where the employee has under two years' service). There is no qualifying period of service for the right to apply.
In a parliamentary written answer to Steve Baker MP on 25 April 2022, Nadhim Zahawi said he would like to amend the Act so that teachers who are not union members can choose to be accompanied to internal hearings by a lawyer or other external representative.
Critics of the proposal say that to introduce lawyer involvement into management meetings will increase the bureaucracy, cost and delay of internal employment processes. It is important to note that teachers are already entitled to be professionally represented at potentially career-ending Teaching Regulation Agency teacher misconduct hearings. However, if staff are accompanied by external lawyers or representatives to internal hearings, it is likely employers will also feel the need to be professionally represented. This could well lead to what should be relatively straightforward matters becoming drawn out and overly complicated.
At the moment, Mr Zahawi's plan is at its earliest stages and it remains to see how the proposal will progress, it at all, into Government policy and an amendment to the Act. We will report on any further developments.