SMALL businesses in York and North Yorkshire are becoming more discordant, with disciplinary procedures becoming formalised at an earlier stage and internal disagreements more likely to lead to legal action.

These are the findings of The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), based on an analysis of calls to its free legal advice service to members, including more than 12,500 in Yorkshire.

While the overall volume of calls nationally - including York and North Yorkshire - rose by four per cent to 141,471 in 2004, pleas for assistance with employment law issues rose by twice as much, from 49,335 to 55,000.

Half of these were to help address conflicts between employers and staff, including disciplinary and grievance procedures, redundancy, dismissal and employment tribunals. FSB lawyers dealt with more inquiries about disciplinary procedures than any other single topic.

Peter Pybus, pictured, chairman of the Yorkshire Dales Branch of the FSB, said: "In spite of the extensive benefits of being based in York and North Yorkshire, our small enterprises there are among those which are bogged down by internal legal issues, which is not good for their long-term development."

Updated: 11:29 Friday, February 18, 2005