Managers are all too aware that at various points in managing the employment relationship, difficulties will arise. Disciplinary and grievance procedures are there to provide structure to ensure that those difficulties are dealt with fairly and consistently. Employers are required to comply with current law and to follow the Acas Code of Practice: Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures at a minimum. 

The grievance procedure provides employees and the employer with a course of action if they have a complaint which they are unable to resolve informally. Typically, there is a timescale to resolve the issue of concern; the aim is to resolve the matter internally without recourse to an employment tribunal.

All employees at any point have a right to raise a grievance during employment - there is no minimum level of service required. If an employee has left the business, there is no obligation to investigate the grievance raised. However, to avoid timely and costly employment tribunal claims, the majority of employers choose to investigate the grievance.

What Should Be Included In A Grievance Policy?

Employers should outline their grievance procedure in a documented policy that is accessible to all employees; the policy is typically located in the staff handbook or an individual policy. At a minimum, the following should be included:

• Contact information for where grievances can be submitted
• Timescales of when the grievance will be heard and when the outcome will be issued
• An appeals procedure
• Timescale of when the grievance appeal will be heard 

How Should A Grievance Be Raised?

If a complaint cannot be resolved informally then the complaint should be raised in writing, this is known as a formal grievance. The concerns and/or complaint should be in detail describing the nature of the complaint, include any relevant copies of evidence or supporting documents and what the employee’s desired outcome is.

The Investigation Process

After a grievance has been submitted, the employer should appoint a chair to hear the grievance with the employee, and they will need to conduct an investigation into the complaint. The investigation process usually involves gathering as much information on the complaint as possible and will usually involve interviewing other employees who may have seen or heard the incidents complained about.

The grievance chair must be impartial; anyone who is named in the grievance should not be the grievance chair. If the employee who raised a complaint has a close working relationship with any manager or other employees, they should not be selected as a chair. After you select a chair, you should determine who will hear an appeal - this should be someone who is more senior than the chair.

The chair should devise a plan on how to conduct the grievance before the investigation. This can involve the following:

• Review of the grievance raised
• Check what polices and procedures are relevant
• Identify what sources of evidence they might be able to access
• Identify any witnesses
• Decide when the grievance hearing will take place 

Grievance Hearing

The employees must be invited to the hearing in writing, the invite should include the time, dates, who else will be in attendance, for example a note taker and the nature of the complaint.

Employees should be provided with the right to be accompanied at the hearing and this should be stated in the written invitation. Acas’s Code of Practice state that a grievance should be heard within 5 days of the complaint being received, however this is not always possible. If an extension is required, you should communicate this to the employee. Before the hearing the employee should communicate if they will be accompanied and by who.

At the beginning of the hearing, you should confirm to the employee that they are forbidden from recording the meeting and that the note taker is there to take an accurate reflection of what is discussed. After the hearing the employee should receive a copy of the notes and a request for signature should be obtained.

After the hearing 

Once the grievance hearing has concluded, the chair will conduct most of their investigation which can involve gathering supporting evidence like CCTV and organising meetings with witnesses if necessary.

Outcome

When the chair has completed the investigation they must inform the employee of the outcome, typically a meeting will be set up to explain their decision and to confirm the appeal’s process although meeting with the employee is not always necessary. After the meeting the employee should be informed of the outcome in writing.

There are common grievance outcomes:

• The grievance is founded
• The grievance is partially unfounded
• The grievance is unfounded 

Grievance Appeals 

If an employee decides to appeal the outcome, they should state this in writing and the employer will need to select an impartial individual to hear the appeal.

The employer should set a limit for the employee to raise an appeal. If an appeal is received outside of this timeline, it will be at the employer’s discretion if they decide to investigate the matter further.

The appeal can be heard as a review or a re-hearing, a review is where the chair will go through the original chairs investigation report to check that the grievance has been properly and thoroughly investigated whereas a re-hearing is where the chair will conduct their own investigation into the grievance.

When the appeal hearing has been heard the chair must communicate the final decision to the employee and this must be followed up in writing. The employee should be informed that this is the final step in the procedure. If an employee decides that they want to take action further, they will typically contact ACAS Early Conciliation Service that can help them reach an agreement with the employer.