Grievances

The Acas Code applies to grievances raised by employees ‘under a contract of employment’. This means that it may be open to the employer to give other workers (e.g. agency or contracted workers) access to the formal grievance procedure. It would also be good practice for an employer to consider a grievance of a dismissed employee, but they may set out in their policy that they will not do so. However, an Employment Tribunal may increase any compensation by up to 25% if your employer does not hear your grievance, even if the grievance is submitted.

In all cases, you should consult your employer’s written grievance procedure. For example, if you are an agency worker, you may be entitled to raise a grievance with your agency or the business you’re placed with. While many organisations may extend the provisions of their grievance procedure to non-employees, you will need to check whether you come under the organisation’s grievance policy if you are not an employee. Your employer’s written grievance procedure should as a minimum follow the Acas Code of Practice for grievance procedures.  You can still raise a grievance even after you have left or resigned from your employment. Your former employer would still have to engage in the grievance procedure, and may face penalties at the tribunal for refusing to do so. However you should be aware of the three-month time limit from the date of the complaint for making a claim in the tribunal. Ongoing grievance procedures do not extend the time limit for bringing a claim and if you are getting close to the time limit, you may want to contact Acas to conciliate and consider submitting a claim to preserve your position.

Please note that, if you have been included in an organisation’s formal procedure, this may be relevant to your employment status. See our Employer, self-employer or worker page.

Unless your employer’s written grievance procedure specifies that all grievances must be raised within a certain time limit, there is no legal limit on when you can raise a grievance. You should check your workplace grievance policy to find out how to raise a formal grievance and who you should send it to.

It is, however, advisable for you to raise a grievance reasonably soon after the issue arises, and you should take any actions expected of you under a grievance policy as soon as you can. An employer will be less likely to take a grievance seriously, or be able to satisfactorily resolve problems that have arisen too far in the past. You should also aim to gather and record any relevant evidence as quickly as possible to ensure that you are able to rely on it when raising your grievance.

Do not allow a delay in raising your grievance to prevent you from making a claim to a tribunal within the time limits. You could raise a grievance and contact Acas on the same day to preserve your claim  for example, if your grievance relates to discrimination, delaying any grievance may mean that you miss the three-month deadline, starting from the date of the discrimination, for bringing a claim. If you believe that you may have a claim, you should take legal advice.

While a tribunal would usually expect you to have exhausted internal complaints processes, you do not need to wait for a grievance to be fully resolved before bringing a claim if it would mean that you miss time limits.

A tribunal will consider whether an employee has a genuine reason for not following a formal grievance procedure. For example, the employee might find it difficult to attend a grievance meeting with someone accused of sexually harassing them.

But there may be better ways to get what you want than raising a grievance. See below. 

In most cases, it will not be necessary to raise a formal grievance. Many issues can be best resolved by speaking to your line manager or other senior staff members.  This often results in a harmonious resolution, without escalating the concern to a formal grievance which can impact your relationships at work.  If you do not feel comfortable doing that, you could speak to someone in HR. Speaking to someone you feel comfortable with may reduce the risk of antagonising your line manager and can often lead to a constructive solution. Sometimes, a grievance may cause more harm than good. See here for more details on the risks of raising a grievance, alternatives to grievances and tips for engaging with your employer effectively.

If your employer has behaved very badly towards you and the breach is so serious, you feel you cannot work for them any longer, but you have not been dismissed, you may feel you have no choice but to resign and make a claim for constructive dismissal. This is a high-risk option and you should seek legal advice before taking this step.  This essentially means that your employer has breached your contract in such a serious way that it is a ‘fundamental breach’ and you feel you have no choice but to resign. 

We would not recommend resigning, but rather to continue to work under protest and seek to reach agreement whilst protecting your employment wherever possible. This is because in constructive dismissal claims, it is for you to prove that your employer’s breach of contract was so serious that you considered the contract was terminated by your employer. There is no guarantee a Tribunal will agree with you. Even if your claim succeeds, you may not receive enough compensation to make up for the loss of your job.

Employees and employers are encouraged to try and resolve workplace issues informally. But you may wish to raise a formal grievance at the outset because:

• Employers may take a formal grievance more seriously than an informal approach and may be more likely to reach a solution;
• Even if it is unlikely that the grievance will resolve the issue, it may still be beneficial for you to set out your concerns in writing and cooperate as far as possible with your employer’s formal procedure;
• Your employer may encourage the raising of written complaints, because they see this as an opportunity to learn from and correct policies and practices;
• If your grievance concerns a serious issue, such as discrimination, an employment tribunal would expect you to raise a formal complaint as soon as possible;
• If your grievance concerns the behaviour of a particular line manager, it may be helpful to have your complaint considered by someone else in the organisation.

The disadvantages of raising a grievance are:

• A formal complaint may not be appropriate for a minor inconvenience and may escalate an issue unnecessarily;
• Depending on the culture of your organisation, your grievance may signal to the employer that you are on course for bringing a claim against them, and make the employment relationship more difficult;
• Even if the issue is resolved, workplace relationships may be irreparably damaged.

See here for more details on the risks of raising a grievance, alternatives to grievances and tips for engaging with your employer effectively.

There are no formal rules for what must be included in the grievance. The Acas Code requires that if it is not possible to resolve a grievance informally employees should raise the matter formally and without unreasonable delay with a manager who is not the subject of the grievance. This should be done in writing and should set out the nature of the grievance.  The employee with the grievance should put it in writing to whoever is most appropriate – this could be their line manager or HR manager.

It is recommended that the grievance sets out all of the issues complained about in enough detail to make your position clear. This includes what the actions were, when they happened, who was involved, how it affected you and what resolution you would like from your employer. Try to provide as much relevant factual detail as possible and ensure that the information provided is accurate and correct.
This is a written record and could also be included as evidence if you bring a subsequent tribunal claim. You do not need to specifically state that it is a formal grievance.

The grievance letter may be written by yourself, your legal advisers or a voluntary agency such as the Citizens Advice Bureau. This will depend on the circumstances; a letter from legal advisers will be more expensive and may appear unnecessarily hostile to your employer.

We have drafted a sample grievance letter that can help you draft your own.

Managers should arrange a grievance meeting with you within ideally 5 working days.  The meeting is your chance to explain the grievance and show any supporting evidence that you have, and for the employer to ask any questions that they may have. The details of this will usually be contained in your employer’s grievance policy and the employer should allow employees enough time to prepare for the meeting.

If your concern involves bullying, harassment or whistleblowing, your employer may wish to deal with your grievance through a separate procedure. You should consult your employer’s policies in these cases.

To keep the procedure fair, the employer should:

• consider information and evidence from all sides;
• see if a similar grievance has happened before and aim to follow as similar a procedure as possible;
• keep a confidential record of the meeting, the nature of the grievance, any evidence they’ve gathered, and any decisions and whether the employee appeals the grievance outcome;
• ensure that all personal information and data is kept confidential.
• at the end of the meeting, the employer should give you a copy of the meeting minutes and let you know when a decision will be made. If you do not agree that the minutes accurately record the meeting, then you can provide your own corrected version. You should be careful if you choose to do this, a tribunal will be inclined to refer to both versions of the minutes. It is helpful to have a companion to help keep a record of the meeting.

Workers have a legal right to be accompanied by a companion to a grievance meeting. This will be a colleague, a trade union representative or a trade union employee; although an employer’s policy may allow other people to accompany you, such as a family member. The employer may also arrange for someone not involved in the grievance to take notes at the meeting.

You must make a reasonable request to your employer, letting them know the name of your companion in enough time to make arrangements for their attendance before the meeting.  Similarly, your companion should be given enough time to understand the facts and prepare for the meeting.

If your employer fails to comply with your reasonable request to be accompanied, or rearrange a hearing to allow your companion to attend, you may make a claim to an employment tribunal. However, the compensation for a standalone claim for a breach of the statutory right to be accompanied is likely to be minimal. It is more likely to be worth doing if you are bringing a main claim as well (for example, unfair dismissal or discrimination).

With your permission as the person raising the grievance, your companion can address the meeting to put or summarise your case to your employer, respond to any view expressed at the meeting on your behalf and to confer with you during the meeting. A good use of your companion would be as a note taker and a witness, especially if they have no formal representative training.

Your companion cannot answer any questions on your behalf and they cannot obstruct you from presenting your case in any way. The companion also cannot prevent anyone else at the meeting from explaining their side of the case.

Following a grievance meeting, your employer will need to gather evidence and investigate the grievance before making a fair decision. The employer should ideally keep regular and confidential communication with you (and anyone else involved in the grievance) to seek to minimise misunderstanding or stress caused to individuals whilst the outcome is being decided.

If an employer ignores a grievance or fails to hear it within a reasonable time, you could possibly argue that this is a fundamental breach of your employment contract, depending on the seriousness of the grievance. If your grievance is so serious that you can no longer work for your employer, you may be able to resign and bring a claim in the employment tribunal that you were constructively unfairly dismissed.

This is a high-risk option and you should seek legal advice before taking this step. We would not recommend resigning, but rather to continue to work under protest and seek to reach agreement whilst protecting your employment wherever possible. This is because in constructive dismissal claims, it is for you to prove that your employer’s breach of contract was so serious that you considered the contract was terminated by your employer. There is no guarantee a Tribunal will agree with you. Even if your claim succeeds, you may not receive enough compensation to make up for the loss of your job.

If your grievance is not satisfactorily resolved (e.g. you feel the outcome was wrong, the procedure was unfair or you have new evidence to show), your next step should be to appeal against the decision. Employers should inform you of their decision shortly after the meeting and tell you how you can make an appeal.

Most appeal procedures should be set out in your employer’s grievance policy. You should let your employer know the grounds of your appeal in writing as soon as possible after the decision has been made. If there are no timescales set out in the grievance policy, you should inform your employer of your decision to appeal within a week. If an employer does not give the opportunity to appeal, this could be counted against them if the case goes to employment tribunal. If you fail to appeal a decision, this may also result in a reduction of compensation awarded if you are successful in a later Employment Tribunal claim.

An appeal means your employer needs to look at your case again to see if the procedure was followed in a fair way and the outcome is fair. The employer should:

• hear your appeal;
• carry out another investigation, if necessary;
• see if a different outcome is appropriate; and
• provide the final outcome in writing as soon as possible, ideally within 5 working days of the formal appeal meeting.

Some employers may allow for more than one appeal stage, although the Acas Code only stipulates that one appeal be allowed. Details of this will be set out in the formal grievance policy. In this case, you may wish to make a further appeal, although you should consider whether the time and resources required by both parties to prepare for and attend subsequent appeals would be necessary to resolve your issue.

Smaller organisations may only have one appeal stage and any decision at the first appeal may be final. If you are unsatisfied with your employer’s decision, and you are unable to make a further appeal, you should consider taking legal advice. You can also call the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100 to talk through your options, although Acas cannot give an opinion or legal advice.