The Lifecycle of a Business - Employee Grievances

Setting up and running your own business is an amazing achievement. It requires vision, creativity, motivation and stamina. On occasion, it can even bring you fame, riches and fortune. But it can also result in reams of paperwork and cause sleepless nights. And as someone once said to me about children “It doesn’t get easier, it just changes”, so the same can be said for your business throughout its lifecycle. From setting up to exit, it will force you to consider issues that you might not previously have known anything about and it will need you to make many decisions, sometimes very quickly. What it certainly is not is mundane.

With this in mind, the corporate team at Forsters, together with some of our specialist colleagues, has written a series of articles about the various issues and some of the key points that it may help you to know about at each stage of a business’s life. Not all of these will be relevant to you or your business endeavours, but we hope that you will find at least some of these guides interesting and useful, whether you just have the glimmer of an idea, are a start-up, a well-established enterprise or are considering your exit options. Do feel free to drop us a line or pick up the phone if you would like to discuss any of the issues raised further.

We’ve already discussed various topics, including funding, employment and commercial contracts, but it’s now time to discuss when things go wrong...

Employee Grievances

It is fair to say that not everything in business is smooth sailing, especially when it comes to staff. Dealing with staff grievances properly is important to help minimise workplace conflicts and improve employee relations.

Keep reading if you want to find out:

• what could trigger a grievance
• why having a grievance procedure is important
• our top tips for getting the grievance procedure right.

What is a grievance?

An employee could have a grievance (i.e., a complaint) for many reasons. Common grievances that we come across include:

• how an employee has been treated by another – this could be as a result of a series of events or an isolated incident
• working conditions relating to hours and/or pay
• how an employee has been managed by their line manager
• the nature of an employee’s work – this could be because they are given work they were not hired to do, or they are being given too much or not enough.

By raising a grievance, an employee forces an employer to investigate the issue with a view to resolving the matter fairly and promptly.

Employees are generally expected to try and deal with concerns informally first of all, and many matters can often be ‘nipped in the bud’ by discussion with an employee’s line manager. Where concerns cannot be resolved informally, an employee has the right to submit a formal grievance in accordance with his or her employer’s grievance procedure.

The importance of a grievance procedure

Employers are required by law to have a written grievance procedure in place. Such a procedure will typically include the following stages:

• submitting a grievance in writing
• conducting a hearing (so that the employee can explain the detail of their complaint)
• investigating the issue(s) at hand
• delivering a written outcome and implementing any recommendations
• giving the employee the right of appeal.

Grievance procedures should adhere to the ACAS code of practice for disciplinary and grievance procedures, which helps ensure that employers act appropriately.

Failure to follow a fair process can land an employer in hot water. Not dealing with a grievance properly could be a breach of the implied contractual duty of trust and fidelity and generally increase the chances of things ending up in the employment tribunal; in certain circumstances where the principles of the ACAS Code has not been applied, any compensatory award given to the employee could be subject to a 25% uplift.

Handling a grievance effectively

Below we set out our top tips to getting the grievance process right:

• Consider the appropriate people to be involved and ensure decision makers are impartial. Sometimes engaging external support, such as external legal or HR advisors, will be appropriate.
• Conduct a reasonable investigation to ensure that all the key facts are established.
• Try to deal with issues promptly and have regard to any timescales set out in the grievance procedure.
• Allow employees to be accompanied.
• When making decisions, act consistently with previous decisions around similar grievances, as appropriate.
• Keep the employee updated, especially if things are taking longer than planned and/or the employee is absent from work.
• Take steps to keep matters confidential.
• Take appeals seriously and consider them carefully.

Disclaimer

This note reflects the law as at 27 August 2024. The circumstances of each case vary and this note should not be relied upon in place of specific legal advice.