Dealing with Grievance
April 2009 saw the repealing of the Statutory Dispute Resolution Regulations. This was replace with a three step process as detailed within the ACAS Code of Practice, bringing an end to the contractual element of the process. However, it is important to remember that although the regulations are no longer contractual, a Tribunal will expect the employer to act reasonably in all cases and as a minimum, act in accordance with the ACAS Code of Practice.
A heavier emphasis has been placed on independent investigation, and the benefit of dealing with grievances informally before moving to a more formal process if necessary.
Informal Grievance
Employees should be encouraged to discuss their questions, complaints, or grievances with their line manager in the first instance. Immediately jumping to using a formal process is not beneficial to either party as it uses precious work time and can have a serious negative affect on the relationship between employee and manager. The manager must take time to listen to what the employee has to say or ask and provide a considered verbal response, and action if necessary, if they are to avoid dealing with time consuming formal grievances.
Formal Grievance
Hopefully a grievance is solved during the informal stage but if the employee still feels the need to propel his grievance further he should set out his grievance in writing to his line manager.
The grievance must be investigated, which will often include discussing the content of the letter in greater detail with the employee. At this stage there is no entitlement for the employee to be accompanied by a work colleague or trade union representative. Depending on the circumstances and whether there are sufficient managers are available within the business, any investigation should be carried out by a third party; whether that third party is another manager, an employee in a position of trust and not normally associated with the aggrieved employee, or someone from outside the organisation. This person should report their findings regarding the investigation to the manager, in writing. Once the investigation is complete the manager must write to the employee, inviting them to attend a grievance meeting. A copy of the investigation report should be included with this letter. At this point, the employee is entitled to representation at the meeting. The manager must verbally deliver his conclusion of the grievance and follow this up in writing after the meeting.
Should the employee still feel the matter has not been resolved satisfactorily, they should set out their appeal to the next appropriate manager. Generally, the appeal goes to a more senior manager, or a manager of similar seniority who has not been involved in the grievance process so far.
The grievance outcome should be reviewed and a meeting held with the aggrieved employee. Again, the employee is entitled to be accompanied by either a work colleague or trade union representative. The decision should be given verbally and confirmed in writing. At this stage, the decision is final and the employee does not have a right to raise the same grievance again.
Our current most common reason for grievance: Bullying and/or Harassment During these tight economic times HR Response has seen an increase in grievances where employees are citing bullying and/or harassment, allegedly inflicted by their line manager. These grievances are usually the result of an employee who has either been questioned regarding their performance or they have been working through a performance improvement plan. No one likes to be told they are not doing well enough in their role, they are not reaching the standards required, or they are not meeting critical deadlines (although some of this should be obvious to them). The only effective way to try and improve an employee’s performance is to work more closely with them, monitor their output, set clear and realistic short term targets and objectives etc. This is not bullying. There are many words that might be used to describe bullying, but the act of bullying does not tend to be one specific action but a cluster of actions carried out over a sustained period of time. These actions might include; Harassment can be defined as sustained unwanted, unacceptable attention and is usually done to create a hostile, humiliating and degrading environment which has the affect of violating a person’s dignity and respect. Harassment is usually linked to one or more of the discriminatory issues such as race, sex, age etc. What pro-active measures can an employer take to avoid claims of bullying?
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