1. INTRODUCTION

The current period is a time of significant change in terms of the rules (and practice) with regard to workplace disciplinary procedures. Part One of the Employment Act 2008 has now actually repealed the much-maligned statutory dispute resolution procedures (SDDP),1 which had been introduced only four years earlier under the Employment Act 2002.2 With the repeal of the SDDP, the law has returned, in part, to the law prior to the 2002 Act.3 But there are significant changes, notably such as the new provision allowing an employment tribunal to increase or decrease an employee's award by up to 25% if either the employer or employee has ‘unreasonably’ failed to comply with the new ACAS Code on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures 2009.4 It is here that the uncertainty arises: how far is the new regime ‘new’ or is it a return to the ‘old’? One part of the old regime does, however, clearly remain under the new regime (whatever happens to be the respective contributions of the old and the new to dismissal law after 6 April 2009).5 Independently of the SDDP, but almost at the same time as the introduction of the SDDP, ‘in order to reflect industrial practice’, the Government introduced a new statutory right of accompaniment in sections 10–14 Employment Relations Act 1999. Some of the uncertainties regarding the new statutory right of accompaniment were clarified in the Employment Relations Act 2004.6 Part One of the 2008 Act most definitely does not affect a worker's right to accompaniment under the 1999 Act. In fact, the ACAS Code 2009 confirms the importance of this right.7 Nevertheless, there are clear limits to the statutory right of accompaniment. Firstly, it is only a right to ‘accompaniment’ and, secondly, the companion can only be one …