Guide · Raising a complaint
Raising a grievance at work
A grievance is the mechanism that obliges your employer to deal with something rather than manage it away. Written well it starts a process they have to run properly. Written badly it produces a meeting, a letter and no change. This guide covers what to put in, what happens next, and when a grievance is the wrong tool entirely.
How do I raise a grievance that has to be answered?
Short answer In writing, promptly, to someone it is not about.
Put it in writing, without unreasonable delay, to a manager who is not the subject of the complaint. Set out what happened, when, who was involved, which duty or policy you say has been breached, what you have already tried, and what outcome you are seeking. Facts and dates carry a grievance. Your employer should then arrange a formal meeting without unreasonable delay, and you have the right to be accompanied where the complaint concerns a duty owed to you.
Key rule
Where a grievance cannot be resolved informally, the employee should raise the matter formally and without unreasonable delay with a manager who is not the subject of the grievance, in writing, setting out the nature of the grievance. The employer should arrange a formal meeting without unreasonable delay, and should communicate its decision in writing, again without unreasonable delay, together with the right to appeal.
Source: Employment Relations Act 1999, s.10, on accompaniment at a qualifying grievance meeting
Practical guidance: ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures (2015), paragraphs 32 to 34 and 40 to 47
At a glance
The same complaint, written two ways
Grievances are concerns, problems or complaints that employees raise with their employer. The ACAS Code encourages resolving them informally where possible, and a quiet word genuinely does settle a great many issues. Where that is not possible, you should raise the matter formally and without unreasonable delay, in writing, with a manager who is not the subject of the grievance, setting out the nature of the grievance.
From that point the employer has obligations: arrange a formal meeting without unreasonable delay, allow you to explain your grievance and how you think it should be resolved, consider adjourning for any investigation needed, communicate the decision in writing without unreasonable delay, and tell you that you can appeal if you are not content with the action taken. You have the right to be accompanied at the meeting where it concerns a duty owed to you, and at any appeal hearing.
Zhan Associates is a specialist workplace defence consultancy. We are not a firm of solicitors and we do not provide reserved legal activities or legal advice. We help you frame the grievance so it has to be answered. We do not attend grievance meetings ourselves: our in-room work is at disciplinary and appeal hearings, which is where our expertise sits. Your statutory right to be accompanied at a qualifying grievance meeting still stands, and you can exercise it with a fellow worker or a trade union representative.
Raising A Grievance
Writing the grievance
A grievance letter has one job, which is to make the complaint impossible to answer vaguely. Everything that helps it do that job belongs in; everything else weakens it. Dates, documents, named witnesses and specific policy references belong in. Accumulated history, adjectives and inference about motive generally do not, because they hand the responder something to disagree with instead of something to investigate.
Length works against you. Two well-structured pages will be read by everyone who has to act on it. Fourteen pages will be summarised by somebody else, and the summary is what the meeting will actually address. If the history genuinely matters, put a short chronology in an appendix and keep the letter itself tight.
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| 1. Statement | That this is a formal grievance under the employer’s grievance procedure. Name the policy if you have it. This removes any argument later about whether it was ever raised formally. |
| 2. The facts | Numbered incidents in date order. What happened, when, where, who was present, what was said. One paragraph each. |
| 3. The duty | What contractual term, policy provision or statutory duty you say has been breached. Quote the clause number where you can. |
| 4. Evidence | Documents attached and listed, and witnesses named with their relationship to each incident. |
| 5. What you have already done | Informal steps taken, dates, and what response you received. This is what demonstrates the matter could not be resolved informally. |
| 6. Resolution sought | Specific and achievable. A vague request for things to be dealt with properly cannot be granted, refused or measured. |
Send it to a manager who is not the subject of the grievance. Sending a complaint about your line manager to your line manager is the single most common procedural own goal at this stage.
Raising A Grievance
When a grievance meets a disciplinary
This is where judgement matters most. Where an employee raises a grievance during a disciplinary process, the Code says the disciplinary may be temporarily suspended in order to deal with the grievance, and that where the two are related it may be appropriate to deal with both concurrently. Note the language. The disciplinary may be suspended, not must. There is no automatic pause, and expecting one is a common and expensive misunderstanding.
A grievance raised because there is a genuine, related complaint, particularly one that goes to the fairness of the disciplinary process or to the motive behind it, is legitimate and often necessary. A grievance raised the day before a hearing with no connection to the allegations tends to be read exactly as it appears, and it can cost you credibility on the substance at the moment you most need it. The question to answer honestly before sending is whether the grievance would still be worth raising if there were no disciplinary at all.
An employee facing a conduct allegation discovers that the manager who commissioned the investigation is the same person against whom they raised a bullying concern four months earlier, which was never answered.
Why this grievance belongs in. It is related, it goes directly to the impartiality of the process, and it has an independent existence: the earlier concern was raised and ignored regardless of what happens now. Raised properly it may lead to the two being dealt with concurrently, or to a different decision maker. Raised as a general complaint about unfair treatment, it achieves nothing.
How Zhan Associates helps with grievances
We help you decide first whether a grievance is the right instrument, then frame it so it engages a duty rather than expressing a feeling, then prepare you for the meeting so you put it well yourself. We do not attend grievance meetings. Where the grievance sits alongside a disciplinary, we handle the sequencing, because the order in which these things are raised changes what each one can achieve, and the disciplinary hearing is one we will attend with you.
- Assessment first. A Rapid Defence Review tells you plainly whether a grievance helps your position or harms it.
- Preparation for the meeting. We prepare the points, the order to put them in and the documents to take, so you can put the grievance well yourself. We do not attend grievance meetings, though we do attend any disciplinary or appeal hearing that runs alongside.
- Where it points to an exit. A grievance that establishes a documented breach also builds negotiating position. See Negotiation Strategy.
- Discrimination overlay. Where the complaint engages a protected characteristic, read the discrimination guide before choosing the route.
Sources: ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, in force 11 March 2015, paragraphs 32 to 47. Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10.
Common questions
Grievance questions people ask
Where the issue cannot be resolved informally. Many concerns are resolved by a quiet word, and the Code encourages that. Where it cannot be, you should raise the matter formally and without unreasonable delay, in writing, with a manager who is not the subject of the grievance.
Set out the nature of the grievance clearly: what happened, when, who was involved, what duty or policy you say has been breached, what you have already tried, and what outcome you are seeking. Facts and dates carry the letter. Adjectives do not, and they give the responder something to argue with instead of the substance.
The Code requires a formal meeting to be arranged without unreasonable delay after a grievance is received, and the decision to be communicated in writing without unreasonable delay afterwards. There is no fixed number of days, so a delay is measured against what was reasonable in the circumstances.
Yes, where the grievance concerns a duty owed by your employer to you, for example a failure to honour your contract or a breach of legislation. The same statutory categories apply as at a disciplinary hearing, and the same five working day postponement rule applies where your companion is unavailable.
The disciplinary process may be temporarily suspended to deal with the grievance, and where the two are related it may be appropriate to deal with both concurrently. It is not an automatic pause. Raising a grievance purely to delay a hearing tends to be transparent, and it can damage your credibility on the substance.
It is a legitimate question and the honest answer is that it changes the dynamic. What protects you is the record: a specific, measured, evidenced grievance is difficult to retaliate against without the retaliation itself becoming visible. Detriment for raising certain protected matters is separately unlawful.
Yes. If you feel the grievance has not been satisfactorily resolved you should appeal, letting your employer know the grounds in writing and without unreasonable delay. Appeals should be dealt with impartially and wherever possible by a manager not previously involved, and you have the right to be accompanied at the appeal hearing.
The Code does not apply to grievances raised on behalf of two or more employees by a recognised trade union representative or other appropriate workplace representative. Those go through the organisation's collective grievance process instead, which is a different route with different dynamics.
Sometimes, but check first. Organisations may deal with bullying, harassment and whistleblowing under a separate procedure, and using the wrong one can cost you protections that the specific procedure carries. Read the policies before you choose the route.
It usually helps, for a practical reason as much as a legal one. It puts the complaint on the record, obliges the employer to run a process, and demonstrates that you gave them the chance to put it right. Resigning without ever having raised it is one of the most common weaknesses in an otherwise arguable case.
Thinking about resigning over this? Read constructive dismissal before you do. The sequence matters more than the resignation.
Free tools
Apply this to your own case
The Code applies to grievances as well as discipline. The review covers both.
Position Review
Thirty-two questions on how your employer has handled the process, each tied to a numbered paragraph of the ACAS Code 2015. Fifteen minutes, and it gives you the points to raise and the deadlines to diarise.
Review the processFree, with nothing to sign up for. Both run entirely in your browser: nothing you enter is sent to us or stored anywhere. Both give general information measured against the ACAS Code of Practice dated 11 March 2015, which is the version in force. Neither assesses your case and neither predicts any outcome.
What commonly goes wrong
- Assuming a grievance automatically pauses a disciplinary. Paragraph 46 says the disciplinary process may be temporarily suspended, and that where the two are related it may be appropriate to deal with both concurrently. It is not an automatic stop.
- The grievance heard by the person it is about, which paragraph 32 cuts directly against.
- A grievance written in adjectives rather than dates, documents and specifics, which gives the responder something to argue with instead of the substance.
- The wrong procedure used. Organisations may deal with bullying, harassment or whistleblowing under a separate procedure carrying protections the general grievance route does not.
- A collective complaint run through the individual route. Grievances raised on behalf of two or more employees by a recognised union representative fall outside the Code entirely, under paragraph 47.
- No written outcome, or an outcome that never says what the employer intends to do about it.
Primary sources
- ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, in force 11 March 2015, paragraphs 32 to 47, via acas.org.uk
- Employment Relations Act 1999, section 10, via legislation.gov.uk
Keep reading
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The right to be accompanied
Who you can bring, what they are allowed to do, what happens if the date does not work, and the limits nobody explains until you are already sitting down.
Read the guide → Losing your jobUnfair and constructive dismissal
The two routes people search for most, the tests that apply to each, and why the sequence before you resign decides more than the resignation itself.
Read the guide → Equality Act 2010Discrimination and dispute resolution
Protected characteristics, the shifting burden of proof, mandatory ACAS Early Conciliation, and what an ET1 has to establish.
Read the guide →Confidential · Free 15-minute consultation
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