Grievances & Disputes

If a employee has an issue in the workplace then they have the right to follow the grievance procedure in order for this to be investigated and resolved.

Having open channels of commuication within your business should allow your employees to resolve issues more informally, however, in the event an employee feels a grievance has not been dealt with informally they may put this in writing and as an employer you should follow the formal grievance procedures from this point.

ACAS Code of Practice

The ACAS Code of Practice has replaced the 2004 Compulsory Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures and the existing 2004 ACAS Code of Practice 1. All employers must have had in place minimum statutory procedures to resolve dismissal, disciplinary and grievance disputes in the workplace, and to notify their employees of these procedures.
The changes in the Code make the procedure more informal and flexible and aims to reduce the need to go to tribunal and the costs associated with this process. Although the ACAS Code of Practice are guidelines and are in themselves not legally binding, they play an important role within Employment Tribunals, in that a tribunal will consider whether the employer has followed the ACAS Code. If the employer fails to comply with the Code the tribunal may adjust any awards made by up to 25% for unreasonable failure to comply.

Grievance Procedure

The purpose of grievance procedures is to ensure that problems and complaints are deal with fairly and consistently. The type of issues that are commonly raised by employees are working conditions or pay, discrimination, treatment by colleagues, health & safety concerns, breach of statutory rights or any other issue affecting their employment.

The informal procedure should be an open discussion with a Manager about the concerns and the aim of an informal process is to try and resolve issues quickly. Records of such meetings are still important.

The formal process is applicable when a written statement or complaint is received by the employee. The employee would then be invited to a grievance meeting to discuss the issues in more detail. Once this is completed the grievance can be properly investigated and the results and response from the company is typically then communicated in writing.

Employees have the right to appeal the decision of the company if they feel there are grounds to do so.

If you have a current employee dispute or grievance then contact us to talk through this in more detail to ensure you are following the correct procedure. If you do not hav a written grievance policy then we can help you implement this.

Mediation

Where there may be a dispute which cannot be resolved between the company and employee then we are able to work with both parties to reach an amicable solution. This is often used in small businesses where there is a flat management structure and therefore the issues may be directly with the only Manager in the business.

A happy workforce is a productive workforce.