A grievance procedure is a process that lets you make complaints to, or raise problems with, your employer. Find out what steps you need to take if you have a complaint and what to think about when following a grievance procedure.
Problems you might want to raise with your employer could involve:
A grievance procedure is one of the ways to resolve a problem at work. However, it is often a good idea to try to sort out the problem by having an informal chat with the relevant people, like your manager, to see if that helps.
If informal attempts to resolve the problem haven't worked, or aren't appropriate, then your employer should have their own grievance procedure which you can use. You should follow this if you can and check your contract of employment, or company handbook, for more details.
There's a set of minimum steps that have to be included in any grievance procedure and these are known as the 'statutory minimum procedures'. There are two of these procedures:
Statutory grievance procedures only have to be applied to people defined as 'employees', although employers can extend them to other people like agency and casual workers if they want to.
Normally, you won't be allowed to make a claim to an Industrial Tribunal or the Fair Employment Tribunal until you have followed the statutory minimum procedure, unless you think you'll face harassment or violence as a result. If you are found to be at fault for not following the procedure you might get a reduced award.
You shouldn't be dismissed for raising a genuine grievance about one of your statutory employment rights. Examples of these are discrimination or querying whether you have got the correct wages. Neither should you suffer disadvantage like not being promoted or losing overtime for raising a genuine grievance. Making such a complaint may count as 'blowing the whistle' and you may be able to take action against your employer.
It should be noted that the government is making changes to the existing law that deals with discipline and grievance issues at work from 6 April 2009. But that these changes will not take effect in Northern Ireland, where the Department for Employment and Learning is currently carrying out its own review of the statutory employment dispute resolution procedures.
The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) offers free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues for residents of Northern Ireland. You can contact the LRA on 028 9032 1442 from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday.
Your local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) can provide free and impartial advice. You can find your local CAB office in the phone book or online.
If you are a member of a trade union you can get help, advice and support from them.
Employment
