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Have I got the right to choose who comes with me to meetings with management?

Yes. You now have the right to be accompanied at meetings with management. The Employment Relations Act 1999 introduced a new right for workers to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing by a trade union representative or a fellow worker. Since September 2000, a worker who is 'required or invited' by his or her employer to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing may 'reasonably request' to be accompanied by a 'single companion' (Employment Relations Act 1999, s 10).

Key points include:

  • Your companion can be either a paid trade union officer, a lay trade union official certified for this role by their union, or a fellow worker.
  • All 'workers' are covered by the rights, including homeworkers, agency workers, part-time, temporary and casual workers, those on short-term contracts and those who work overseas.
  • The statutory right to be accompanied at meetings with your employer applies to any hearing connected with 'the performance of a duty by the employer in relation to a worker'. Because health and safety involves your employer's legal and contractual obligations, you have the right to be accompanied at meetings or hearings dealing with health and safety issues.
  • The choice of companion is yours. They could be a paid official of a trade union (regardless of whether the union is recognised or has other members in the workplace); a shop steward who has experience of, or training in, acting as a worker's companion at disciplinary or grievance hearings; or a fellow worker.
  • Some recent cases have also established that where a disciplinary meeting is likely to result in you not being able to practice your profession in the future (for example where teaching or medical staff are accused of gross professional misconduct that could lead to them being struck off a professional register), you may be entitled to bring a legal representative with you to the hearing.  These developments are based on human rights legislation – the right to a fair trial. This sort of situation would be unusual. 

These rights are set out in a code of practice issued by the Government’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). Its Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures outlines best practice and provides a model approach on the new procedures. The revised ACAS Code of Practice is available on the ACAS website.