Site disputes procedures 'under threat'

Draft government regulations introducing statutory measures to resolve employment disputes at local level are likely to be seriously counter-productive, according to the Engineering Construction Industry Association (ECIA).
In a response to a government consultation document, the engineering construction contractors say the proposed regulations threaten to undermine existing tried and tested procedures.
"By substituting rigidly defined statutory procedures for the common sense fairness principles of the past, we believe the current proposals will generate litigation rather than reduce it," said the ECIA. "The letter of the law will be seen to have triumphed over its spirit."
The association added: "The engineering construction industry has a valued, tried and tested system of avoiding unnecessary tribunal claims which commands the support of employers, employees, and trade unions.
"At a government conference two years ago, the deputy prime minister held up the engineering construction sector and its employment practices as examples for civil engineering and building employers to follow. This system is now under threat from the very legislation that purports to support dispute resolution in the workplace."
The proposals have been brought forward in the wake of an explosion in the number of cases going through the employment tribunal system. The construction industry has been the source of a large proportion of these tribunal hearings.
The proposed regulations are intended to take effect from next April. Envisaged as a mandatory, staged disputes resolution procedure, they have already been dismissed as a "dog's dinner" by the manufacturers of the Engineering Employers Federation.