Employment Relations Act 1999 ss.10-15 and Employment Relations Act 1999 (Commencement No. 7 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2000, SI 2000/2242
Employment Relations Act 2004 s.37

With effect from 4th September 2000, a worker (as defined by Employment Relations Act 1999 s.13) has the legally enforceable right to be accompanied by a fellow worker or trade union representative of his choice at internal disciplinary procedure and grievance procedure hearings (Employment Relations Act 1999 s.10) .

Dismissal of a worker for exercising rights under this section (whether he is the person being accompanied or is the companion) is automatically unfair dismissal (Employment Relations Act 1999 s.12 and see Unfair dismissal/automatically unfair dismissals generally).

An ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures which came into effect on 4th September 2000 updated the previous (1998) Code mainly to take account of the new right to be accompanied at grievance and disciplinary hearings (see Disciplinary procedures/General and Code of Practice ). This 2000 Code has in its turn been replaced by the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures (CoP 1) 2004, effective 1st October 2004 (see notes ACAS/codes of practice and/or at Disciplinary procedures/General and Code of Practice ).

With effect from 1st October 2004, the rights of a worker's companion at a disciplinary hearing have been extended in several ways by Employment Relations Act 2004 s.37 (as to which see generally notes at Acts of Parliament etc/Employment Relations Act 2004 ).

A 2000/08/31 - ACAS Press Release sets out the general position.The relevant basic statutory provision is Employment Relations Act 1999 s.10. The following sections (11 to 15) flesh out some of the detail - these too came into force on 4th September 2000 (see ACTS OF PARLIAMENT etc/Employment Relations Act 1999/commencement dates ).

See also notes generally at Disciplinary procedures (especially Disciplinary procedures/General and Code of Practice ) and/or and Grievance procedures .