Grievance

[HerlockSholmes]

I posted a few weeks ago and recieved some really good advice here, umfortunately my issue with work hasn't been resolved and i have been advised by my union rep to put in a grievance against my boss. he is very supportive but didn't give much detail about what i need to write and how much detail to go.into, how to lay it out etc. sorry if i sound a bit dim but i've never had to do this before and unsure where to start. does anyone have any pointers? there is one main issue but quite alot of background info and smaller issues that are relevant, but i don't want to be long winded. also how long does the process take? i have been signed off for a week because the stress is making me ill, will i have had a response by next week if i submit the grievance by tomorrow or thursday?

happy to give more information ifnit helps, just didn't want to be long winded, i'd really appreciate some more advice.

Hi,

I am currently going through the grievance process. I raised my grievance in May, so be aware that they are very lengthy. I have just gone through the 3rd and final stage of the internal grievance process and i am awaiting their final answer. Although i am with a union i have recently engaged a solicitor to try and bring the whole stressful situation to an end. I initially tried to stay in work, but after 6 horrible weeks i was signed off with stress.

Before you raise your grievance be fully clear what it is you are actually after. You really need to have a definite goal. Also, employers really don't like grievances - ask yourself is it worth the pain. In my case i felt i had no option and to be honest i knew at the beginning that it would probably end up in me leaving the company. Mine is quite a serious issue.

I would make sure that you go into detail in your grievance. You cannot raise a grievance and then add to it later. You need to make sure you cover everything.

A good tip i was given by a cousin (a solicitor) was to make a timeline of events. This will help you get everything down, keep adding to it as the process progresses. My timeline has made my solicitors job a lot easier by the way. At the same time i would also make copies of any relevant emails, company letters and policies that are relevant to your grievance and keep them in a folder. A good tip is to get a copy of your contract, last appraisal etc

Your grievance should obviously be in chronological order. You need to make it quite clear what the actual grievance is and where possible refer to the relevant company policies that you feel have been broken.

Your Union Rep should be able to help, its not for them to write the grievance, but they should be able to review it. A good starter is to just get started and get it all out onto paper. I wrote all mine down then arranged a meeting with the Reps to finish it off.

How long does the process take? good question. You need to get a copy of your companies grievance procedure, that will explain the stages. You then need to ask your rep, my company is notorious for stretching and extending the grievance process, they hope that we will go away and drop the grievance. Your rep should have a good idea of what your company is like.

I would very much doubt that you would have had a response by the end of the week. My company policy states that they will respond within 10 working days to arrange the initial interview. They then take a further 10 days (plus extensions) to issue their findings. That is for each stage!

That is why i asked are you really sure you wish to proceed with the grievance. Is it worth it? For me there was no way i could go back, my job had gone, and what they had left me with would have put me in very very serious risk of some imminent redundancies.

The whole process has been horrendous, my employer at the last meeting were quite nasty. However i stand my ground, i am determined to win my case.

Sorry for the lengthy post - Good luck

What is the grievance for? Some are worth fighting for e.g discrimination bullying others are not
I found solicitors less helpful unless they know the case well Unions may be better

I have gone through the full grievance procedure.

Describe what your grievance is in full and if it covers several issues then put those in bullet format or subsections. Try and propose any remedies at the end of the grievance if at all possible.

Scared makes some very good points and it is a very daunting process to go through. I found that the middle managers were the most nasty and there is a lot of mudslinging that goes on as well. Be prepared to have your professional name sullied. By the time mine had got to the director of HR and the Head of the company they seemed a lot more agreeable but I guess they just wanted the whole thing resolved. I had a solicitor working for me from day one but they don't get too involved till you have exhausted the internal grievance procedure and cannot represent you at any internal meetings but a union rep, family member, colleague and friend can accompany you.

Luckily mine was settled before going to tribunal and being quite a timid person in RL I am very proud that I stood up for myself even though it was a horrible experience to go through

Hi everyone thanks so much for your replies. im struggling to concentrate because of lively DS jumping around but will answer all your replies soon when he's in bed.

How long it takes will depend on the nature of the grievance, how much of an investigation is required, the procedure the organisation uses and the culture of the organisation.

There's hardly ever an actual good reason for a grievance to take months. If it's a large public sector organisation with a very involved overly bureaucratic procedure to follow, and that is combined with it being a very detailed and involved grievance, requiring lots of witness interviews and the like, and also with a bit of long term sickness thrown in, then yes months is possible.

If it's a pretty straightforward grievance, the procedure is a straightforward one, the investigation doesn't need to be very involved and painful, the organisation is of a different culture and everyone involved is competent, it might be much quicker.

I don't think it's unreasonable to think a letter of acknowledgement setting a date to hear your grievance by the end of the week is perfectly doable.

It's not always best to give information in date order. It depends on the grievance. If it can be broken down into key themes, with examples to illustrate each, chronology isn't necessarily vitally important.

My best tip is to write the grievance assuming it will be read by someone who has no prior knowledge of the situation. Remove all emotion, use plenty of bullet points, and aim for the reader to be able to understand it pretty well by skimming it.

You are not entitled to bring a family member or friend as has been suggested. You are legally entitled to bring a colleague or trade union rep, although of course individual employers may allow family member or friends if you want to ask for that.

Are you able to give some information about what the grievance is about, and what type of organisation it is?

Hi again, Thanks to the three of you for your help, as i said i am pretty clueless in all this so having some insight into what is involved is great. Scared and Baking, i glad you have both managed to resolve things, but sorry to hear what you've had to go through to get there.

My issues at work, briefly are as follows:

My shifts are constantly being changed without much notice and consideration for childcare etc, yet my boss makes allowances for others in the same job (we are all part time) to work around their other commitments- second jobs, college, childcare. more recently a new employee was given my shifts to allow her to keep her old job and work around her parents jobs so she can use them for childcare. i have been moved to shifts i cant do, i was insulted and laughed at when i questioned this. she assured me on several occassions that she would sort this out and i have over the last week asked several times and she did nothing then put me in as an unauthorised absence and dropped me below my contracted hours. i questioned this as i had given nearly three weeks notice about the shift and she did agree to fix it. she was awful to me about it.

i have beem asked to submit in writing that i cannot work on one particular day of the week (something i committed to outwith work on a day that was not in my regular shift pattern and had not been asked to work on in several months)- this in itself is not a problem but i the only one who has beem asked to do so.

on the rare occassions where i have called in sick, i have been harrassed either by phone or text to come into work regardless. more recently she bit.my head off and implied that i was lying about being ill.

there is alot more background but those are the main things that have brought this to a head.

i have been signed off work for the next two weeks now as i am not sleeping, have constant tension headaches, feel sick and either feel really down or really angry when im at home thinking about it.

i have felt for a while she is trying to push me out.

i don't have a particular goal- i dont want to leave but id like her to behave more professionally towards me and manage shifts properly. i want her boss to know that this is how she behaves.

i have done a sort of timeline of bullet points around one more detailed summary of the most recent issues which have brought this to a head. i think i will refine it, type it and email it to my rep for review before i send it to HR.

i'm worried about what happens in the meantime- we are a small branch of a big company so i do have to work fairly closely with her, i dread the atmosphere when i go back. i'm also worried that when i go back she will have kept me on the shifts i cant do as she has failed/refused to do anything until now, i dont know if i can face bringing it up again but will lose hours if i dont.

also, do i need to apply for sick pay or does that happen automatically? as far as i know its just statutory.

thanks so much to you all again.

Ok so it sounds like there is a general theme of feeling as though you are being treated poorly and unfairly but with some specific things that could be sections, so first would be anything related to your hours, with bullets of examples of that, in date order. Next section would be issues around being off sick, with examples in bullets in date order, etc etc. If you just do a straight list of niggles it's far more likely to look petty (not suggesting it is), whereas if you divide it into themes/areas you are building up more of a picture and each thing seems more serious, and makes it easier for someone with no prior knowledge to understand.

Thanks flowery. what you've said makes sense- the issues on their own may sound petty if they were isolated but putting each issue into sections will make it clear how this has built up over time. i was quite worried about sounding petty but my rep says i have good grounds to submit grievance so i feel a bit better about it now.

have got computer access tomorrow in library so am going to get it typed up tonight and make copies to keep as well.

i'm a bit out of my depth with this stuff so i really appreciate someone who knows what they are talking about pointing me in the right direction, thanks againm