5 December 2005

Rugby, by its very nature, is a game of brutal physical confrontations: individual against individual, group against group. However, frequent occurrences of ‘inappropriate’ levels of aggression in sport have been receiving extensive press coverage of late. For example, England's Lewis Moody and Samoa's Alesana Tuilagi will face disciplinary hearings following their recent red cards at Twickenham (misconduct), and Moody received nine-week suspension from a Six Nations disciplinary panel. Incidents such as these should encourage owners/managers to re-examine the terms under which these sportsmen are employed, and the process of sanctioning players for misconduct. Although the latest figures from the Home Office reveal that overall there is a steady fall in the number of violent incidents in workplaces, since a peak of 1.3 million incidents in 1995, it remains a significant problem in the workplace. It is estimated that there were 655,000 incidents of violence experienced by workers in England and Wales in 2004/05.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines work-related violence as: any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. This can include verbal abuse/threats and/or physical attacks. Clearly, physical attacks are dangerous, but serious or persistent verbal abuse can be serious too; it can cause damage to employees’ health by inducing anxiety and stress. For affected employees, violence can cause pain, distress and even disability or death. Furthermore, businesses as a whole can suffer severe financial downfall due to low staff morale and high staff turnover; two commonplacce consequences of such events occurring at work. This can affect the confidence of a business and its profitability. Additional costs may arise from expensive insurance premiums and compensation payments.

Even though, in many cases, it is not employees that are the instigators of violent acts at work, but rather they are the victims of it, it is still essential that all employers have clear and effective disciplinary procedures. The Company’s disciplinary code should be brought to the attention of all employees, as part of their induction and at other appropriate times. The purpose of a disciplinary procedure is to ensure the safe and effective operation of the business and to promote fair treatment of individual employees. It should provide a framework to address any lapses in conduct, attendance or job performance and encourage individual employees to achieve and maintain an acceptable standard of behaviour. Consequently the code should set out what the company regards as a disciplinary offence (including examples of gross misconduct), possible sanctions and details of the investigatory, disciplinary and appeals procedures.

In any disciplinary proceedings the overriding principle is that the proceedings should be fair and there should be an opportunity for both sides to be heard. With this in mind, it is essential to reaffirm understanding of the legislative concepts, which particularly affect employers and HR professionals. Most of the provisions governing discipline and grievances at work are to be found in the Employment Act 2002, and the detailed regulations made to implement the provisions of that Act namely the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004.