Grievances can be dangerous territory for an employer if they are not handled with the correct advice. They can lead to several complicated and expensive claims such as discrimination, ordinary and automatic unfair dismissal.
The first stage is to consider check whether there is a grievance procedure usually contained within the contract of employment or in a separate grievance policy.
If this is not the case then you need to apply the ACAS procedure.
The basic elements are as follows:
- Acknowledge the grievance and set out next steps.
- Decide who will investigate the grievance, chair meetings and deal with any appeal.
- Arrange a meeting with the employee where you can run through the grievance with them. This is an important step so that you can ensure that the grievance is fully understood.
The grievance investigation will involve several steps which may include obtaining documents and speaking with witnesses. It is important that the employer can demonstrate that they have kept an open mind and not prejudged the outcome. Therefore, the ACAS code states that the person who investigates should be different from the individual who deals with the formal hearing.
It is also important to know that raising a grievance is a “protected act” which means that the individual should not be subject to any “detriment” for raising a grievance. In practice this means that the employer should not be punished in anyway for raising a grievance. You must ensure that HR actions which you take, following a workplace grievance being made, could not be interpreted as such.
Once the investigation has been concluded you can then proceed to a grievance hearing in which the employee has the right to be accompanied.
After these stages a decision will be made about the outcome of the grievance. This is a process of going through each aspect of the grievance and confirming whether it is upheld or not.
The employee will then have a right of appeal which must be heard by somebody different.
If an employee is unhappy with the outcome of a grievance, they may decide to pursue additional claims. This can include resigning and claiming constructive dismissal. This is when an employee claims that you have breached their employment contract by not upholding the grievance. They are effectively saying that your actions amount to a dismissal.
The dissatisfied employee could also claim that the decision was in some way discriminatory.
It is consequently important to get every stage of the process correct.
