Can the 2009 Acas discipline and grievance code live up to Acas's expectations?

There’s no doubt that the dispute resolution procedures have been disastrous, producing, as they have, a relentless stream of cases on such matters as what constitutes a step-one written statement of grievance. (The lowpoint was possibly Procek v Oakford Farms Ltd EAT/0049/08, in which the EAT held that a letter stating that a complaint was informal and not intended to invoke the statutory grievance procedure was a valid grievance under step one of the procedure!) So their repeal can only be a good thing.

But is the new code-based system really going to produce the about-turn in behaviour in the British workplace that Acas predicts? It seems to me that the possible 25% adjustment in tribunal awards where either party has “unreasonably” failed to comply with any provision of the code has the potential to throw a spanner in the works. It’s not hard to envisage a future in which the EAT and Court of Appeal cases on the dispute resolution procedures are simply replaced by appeal cases on whether or not something represented an unreasonable breach of the code, and any adjustment in an award was justified - turning the code into a legal argument. And there would seem to be plenty of scope for that - the code simply isn’t clear enough in many areas. For example, just what is the scope of “the employee should also be given a reasonable opportunity to ask questions, present evidence and call relevant witnesses”? Perhaps it won’t be too long before the appeal courts are being asked the same question.