Grievance
A grievance is your formal complaint about something your employer is doing or has done. This brings together what makes a grievance one they have to answer, what your employer must do with it, and where the route leads if it is not resolved. Start wherever your question is.
The process at a glance
Grievance guide
A plain-English guide to making a formal complaint at work, what your employer should do with it, and where the route leads if it is not resolved.
Based on the ACAS Code of Practice 2015. Position at 15 October 2026.
A grievance carries weight when it is in writing, specific, and put to the right person without delay.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 32 and 47.
Select a step to jump to it. Structure follows the ACAS Code of Practice 2015, paras 32 to 46.
Step 01 of 06
A quiet word with your manager or HR resolves many matters. Keep a dated note of what was said and agreed.
If it cannot be resolved informally, raise it formally and without unreasonable delay (para 32).
Check the policy: your employer’s grievance procedure will say who to write to and how.
ACAS Code 2015, para 32.
Step 02 of 06
Facts and dates
Dates, places, what was said or done, set out in order.
Names and roles
The people involved and any witnesses.
What was breached
The contract term, policy or law you say has been breached.
What you want
What would resolve it, stated plainly.
Not the subject
A manager who is not the subject of the grievance (para 32).
Facts and dates carry a grievance. Adjectives give the responder something to argue with instead of the substance.
ACAS Code 2015, para 32.
Step 03 of 06
Para 33
Your employer should arrange a formal meeting without unreasonable delay after receiving the grievance.
Para 34
You should be allowed to explain the grievance and how you think it should be resolved.
Para 34
The meeting may be adjourned so that any necessary investigation can take place.
Bring a clear timeline and copies of the documents you rely on. Ask for notes of the meeting afterwards.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 33 and 34.
Where the complaint is not about a duty owed to you, the statutory right may not apply. Many employers allow a companion anyway, so ask in writing.
s.10 Employment Relations Act 1999; ACAS Code 2015, paras 35 to 39.
Step 04 of 06
Without unreasonable delay (para 40)
ACAS Code 2015, para 40.
Step 05 of 06
Para 41
If the grievance has not been satisfactorily resolved, set out your grounds in writing and without unreasonable delay.
Paras 42 and 43
Heard without unreasonable delay, impartially and, wherever possible, by a manager not previously involved.
Paras 44 and 45
A statutory right to be accompanied at the appeal hearing, and the outcome in writing.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 41 to 45.
Where you raise a grievance during a disciplinary process, the disciplinary may be temporarily suspended to deal with it. Where the two are related, it may be appropriate to deal with both together.
Raising a grievance does not automatically pause the disciplinary. If you want it paused, ask in writing and give the reason.
Keep the two documents separate and factual. A grievance written in anger can be read as a response to the allegation.
ACAS Code 2015, para 46.
1
The law looks for conduct by your employer that entitles you to end the contract without notice.
2
The resignation must be a response to that conduct.
3
Resigning is hard to undo, and the tribunal time limit runs from the date employment ended.
Resigning ends your employment and can affect what you can claim. Qualifying service rules apply, so take advice on timing before you act.
s.95(1)(c) and s.111 Employment Rights Act 1996.
Internal grievance: runs on the employer’s timetable
Tribunal time limit: runs from the act complained of, or the date employment ended
Six months where the act or dismissal falls on or after 1 October 2026.
Raising a grievance internally does not change the tribunal time limits, so keep an eye on the date while you wait for the outcome.
s.111 Employment Rights Act 1996; ACAS, Early conciliation; GOV.UK, Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update; ACAS, Employment Rights Act 2025.
Next step
Investigation, hearing, decision and appeal, or the grievance route.
In most cases the step before a claim. Notifying ACAS within the time limit protects your position. Conciliation can last up to 12 weeks.
The claim form frames what the tribunal reads, so precise facts and framing matter.
Notifying ACAS is required before most tribunal claims, though taking part in conciliation is voluntary and some claims are exempt. If you notify ACAS within the time limit, you have at least one month from receiving the certificate to make your claim.
s.18A Employment Tribunals Act 1996; ACAS, How early conciliation works.
In force
The time limit for most tribunal claims rises from three months to six, where the act or dismissal falls on or after that date.
Confirmed
For dismissals on or after that date, unfair dismissal needs six months’ service rather than two years, and the cap on the compensatory award is removed.
Not in force
ACAS consulted on a replacement disciplinary and grievance Code. Until it is brought into effect, the 2015 Code applies.
GOV.UK, Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update; ACAS, Employment Rights Act 2025. ACAS draft Code consultation closed 23 September 2026. Re-verify at the point of use.
General information only, based on the ACAS Code of Practice 2015 and the law as at 15 October 2026.
Start here
Choose the option closest to where you are. Nothing here is a substitute for advice on your own case, which is what the free consultation is for.
A grievance carries weight when it is in writing, specific about what happened and when, put to a manager who is not its subject, and clear about the outcome sought. Facts and dates carry it; adjectives give the responder something to argue with instead of the substance.
Where a grievance is not resolved, the route runs through the internal appeal and then, if it needs to, into a negotiated exit or a tribunal claim. What was put in writing at the grievance stage is the record everything after it is built on.
Short answer That it is in writing, specific, and put to the right person without delay.
A grievance carries weight when it sets out what happened, when, who was involved, the duty or policy you say has been breached, and the outcome you are seeking, in writing, to a manager who is not the subject of it. Facts and dates carry the letter; adjectives give the responder something to argue with instead of the substance. Your employer should then arrange a meeting without unreasonable delay, allow you to be accompanied where the grievance concerns a duty owed to you, and give you the outcome in writing with a right of appeal.
Key rule
Where a grievance cannot be resolved informally, it should be raised formally and without unreasonable delay, in writing, with a manager who is not the subject of it. The employer should hold a meeting without unreasonable delay, allow the worker to be accompanied where the grievance concerns a duty owed to them, and communicate the outcome in writing, with a right of appeal.
Source: ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures (2015), paragraphs 32 to 45, and Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10
Practical guidance: The right to be accompanied applies where the grievance concerns a duty owed by the employer to you, and the same five working day postponement rule applies. Raising a grievance during a disciplinary does not automatically pause the disciplinary.
Straight about the boundary
We help you draft and frame a grievance so that it has to be answered on its substance, and we review whether your employer has followed a fair process. We do not attend grievance hearings. In-room representation is where disciplinary and appeal hearings sit, which is the core of the work, and a grievance meeting is a different thing. The grievance guide explains what to expect in the meeting, where you have the right to be accompanied by a fellow worker or a union representative.
Where a grievance is not resolved, the route runs through the internal appeal and then, if it needs to, into settlement or the employment tribunal. That is where the work is taken back up, and the Employment Tribunal and Settlement hub sets out what that looks like.
The questions people actually ask
Each of these links to the answer on the grievance guide. Nothing is duplicated here, because two pages answering the same question is two places for the answer to drift.
Drawn from the grievance guide, because these are the points that decide whether a grievance is answered on its substance or deflected on its form.
Seen in practice
Written around the method rather than the result: what was raised, how it was framed, where the employer’s own procedure was departed from, and what was put on the record.
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