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Employment

Grievance procedures: Introduction

A grievance procedure 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.

When to use a grievance procedure

Problems you might want to raise with your employer could involve:

  • your terms of employment
  • pay and working conditions
  • disagreements with co-workers
  • discrimination 
  • not getting your statutory employment rights

A grievance procedure is one of the ways to resolve a problem at work.  However, you might try talking with your employer informally before using the formal grievance procedure, to see if that helps.

How to raise a grievance

Your employer may have their own procedure, you should follow this if you can. 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, known as the 'statutory minimum procedures'. There are two of these procedures:

  • the 'standard procedure' - which applies to most situations and is the one you should follow if you can
  • the 'modified procedure' - which applies to some situations where employment has ended

Why you should follow a procedure

Normally, you won't be allowed to make an Employment Tribunal (or Industrial Tribunal in Northern Ireland) claim until you've followed the statutory minimum procedure, unless you think you'll face harassment or violence as a result. You might get a reduced award if you're at fault for not following the procedure.

Statutory grievance procedures only have to be applied to people defined as employees, although employers can extend them to other people, eg agency and casual workers if they want to.

What if your employer mistreats you for raising a grievance?

You shouldn't be dismissed for raising a genuine grievance about one of your statutory employment rights (eg about discrimination or about querying whether you have got the right wages). Neither should you suffer disadvantage (eg not be promoted or lose overtime) for raising a genuine grievance over your employment rights. Making such a complaint may count as blowing the whistle and you may be able to take action against your employer.

Where to get help

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) offers free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues. You can call the Acas helpline on 08457 47 47 47 from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday to Friday.

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.

More useful links

Grievance procedures: find out more

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