When you employ people it is only natural that at some point, someone will be unhappy with something and they will want to raise that issue and resolve it. It might be a minor issue, it might be more serious but either way you have a grievance on your hands and how you deal with that grievance is important.
What is a grievance?
So what actually is a grievance? There are various definitions of what a grievance is but when looking at these definitions overall the key words that stand out are “complaint”, “concern” and “dispute”. The trade union Unison define a grievance as follows, “A grievance is a complaint made by an employee to their employer, which requires the employer to take further action”. The exact nature of what these complaints, concerns and disputes might be varies by each individual circumstance be they can be a wide range of issues from problems related to pay all the way up to acts of discrimination.
Getting the process right
If the nature of the grievance is relatively simple and the employee raising the concern is happy to do so then it is always advisable to try and resolve grievances informally in the first instance. Ideally an informal meeting can be arranged to facilitate a discussion of the issues and at the end of that meeting a resolution can be reached that is agreeable to all parties. For example, if two colleagues have fallen out over something trivial then bring the two of them together with a third party present to talk through the problem and agree the best way to move forward. If the issue is more serious or it is felt that an informal approach won’t work then a formal route can be taken and this process should follow the ACAS code of practice. Employers are legally obliged to have a policy on handling grievances and that policy should be communicated to staff and be accessible to them. A grievance process is triggered when a formal grievance is received. The nature of the grievance should be clearly set out and the ACAS guidance is that matters should be raised, “without unreasonable delay”. Once an employer has received a grievance they should then invite the aggrieved employer to a grievance hearing. Employees have a statutory right to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union representative at a grievance hearing. The purpose of the grievance hearing is to enable the employer to fully understand the employee’s concerns and to ask any questions they feel which are relevant to give them that understanding. The aggrieved employee may have evidence relating to their grievance that they also wish to submit or provide statements from witnesses to support their claims. At the end of a grievance hearing it is likely that the person chairing it will need to carry out further investigations into the matters discussed and so it is good practice to let the employee know that and when they can reasonably expect an outcome. Once all appropriate matters have been considered the outcome of the grievance and any relevant actions should then be set out in writing to the employee who raised the grievance. As with a disciplinary situation if the employee is dissatisfied with the decision then they have the right to appeal and that appeal should be heard wherever possible by someone else who has not previously been involved in the case. The purpose of the appeal is not to hold a complete rehearing of the original grievance case, it is to look at specific issues that the employee feels have not been dealt with correctly and the reasons for appeal should be clearly set out in advance by the employee. Again the employee has the right to be represented at the appeal hearing and the outcome of the appeal should be provided to the employee in writing, that decision is then final.
After the process
The outcome of a grievance process is typically that the grievance is either upheld, in other words the manager dealing with the complaint agrees with the employee, or it is not. Either way, what happens following a grievance process is really important to get right. Ideally, the aim should be to ensure that positive and constructive methods are used to resolve the issues at the centre of the grievance to prevent them from happening again. Emotions often run high during grievances so make sure that staff are supported, it might be that further discussions take place, including mediation if appropriate, as a means of finding a way forward for all parties concerned. If this isn’t handled correctly then issues tend to continue to fester and result in further grievances, resignations and other employee relations issues. A grievance can also highlight concerns around an individual’s conduct and if that conduct is sufficiently serious, then it might also be the case that a disciplinary investigation follows on from a grievance in order to deal with the conduct concerns.
Whatever happens it is vital that employers ensure that everyone is treated respectfully, that issues are dealt with consistently, that matters discussed are kept confidential and that a full and fair process is followed.
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Why not also check out our blog on a similar topic Grievances – Common Myths Busted!
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