Grievance Help

A grievance is essentially an issue you have that you would like to raise with your employer.

Before you write a grievance you should consider your evidence, as you will need to be able to prove what you are saying within your complaint. This might be simply recalling who has witnessed certain events or incidents.

The best evidence you can have is to keep a diary. Record any incident or event that doesn't feel right. Record what happened and who was involved.

A grievance is either going to be against your employer (including your manager), or against a colleague. On occasion it could be against both, especially if you raise something a colleague has done and your employer fails to handle the complaint properly.

Writing a grievance

The way you structure and format of the grievance may be dictated by your employer’s policy, it is worth checking this in advance of writing the grievance out.

If there isn’t a form to fill in, writing a letter will be enough. As long as you state the letter is a grievance, your employer will need to investigate and handle the complaint as outlined in the grievance policy and the ACAS code of practice for discipline and grievance.

Next steps

Your employer will invite you to a meeting to discuss and you should receive an outcome in writing.

If you aren’t happy with the employer’s findings you will have a right of appeal.

Reality check

My advice to people I am representing is to look for an outcome beyond a grievance. From a liability point of view, it is highly irregular for an employer to uphold a grievance.

If you fall over in the supermarket, the shop wouldn’t admit it was their fault, because if they did the compensation would be much greater. This is essentially the same principle within a grievance process, especially if there is potentially a legal claim. A grievance should therefore be a means to an end and not an end in itself.

I would also urge caution if you don’t have the required evidence. Grievances can be quite destructive and you should only go forward if you could back up what you are saying.