Grievance process questions.....

[keeponworking]

Gonna dive right in. Had a grievance raised against me and various bits of the grievance policy haven't been followed. I sought basic legal advice on JustAnswer but I'm actually not sure it's correct. I'm in the north west btw (but not Scotland!!). These are my questions:

1. Policy states 'every effort should be made to follow the informal route and until such time as that's exhausted, you don't proceed to the formal grievance process'. Now, the grievee wasn't offered any support as part of the suggested way of addressing the issue (informally) - just said that they could come and talk to me with absolutely no support at all; they were not offered mediation. They were not offered these informal options plus being allowed to move seats. Apparently it was the grievee's choice not to want to go the informal route - can they do that, can they make the choice - shouldn't the policy be followed and if it's not going to be, then the organisation/their HR that decides this, not the individual(s) involved?
2. I only received a copy of the grievee's statement on Tuesday with an investigation meeting to take place 4 days later. The grievee statement refers to a witness yet I will not have had sight of their statements when I go into that meeting which is being recorded verbatim and hosted by an external mediator - is that acceptable?
3. How much of how closely an organisation follows its own stated policies depends on how long you've been employed there - surely the policies are applied the same regardless of if you've worked there 2 years, 2 months or 20 years - or am I wrong?

Cheers all.

1. An employee can choose to raise a formal grievance whenever they wish. If they didn't try to resolve the concern informally first, then depending on the nature of the grievance, the employer might encourage informal discussions, or may not uphold the grievance. But if an employee wants the situation to be looked at formally, that's up to them. You could state your own willingness to enter mediation as part of your response. The person raising the grievance could complain about the lack of informal support as you describe.

1. 4 days to read and prepare to respond doesn't seem wildly unreasonable to me. When you hear what the witness says, if you don't feel able to respond, ask for an adjournment and say that you need time to prepare a response and consider what was said.

1. Yes and no. In theory, yes. In practice, if someone has less than two years' service, then depending on what the issues are, there's realistically not much comeback if the employer doesn't follow a process to the letter.

You can't appeal the outcome of someone else's grievance, obviously. If you are disciplined as a result of this situation, you can raise things like no attempt at informal resolution in your defence.

Thank you flowery.

I feel I've got a good case actually, unless the aim is to 'make an example' of me because of the nature of the grievance.

A "case" for what? For the grievance not to be upheld you mean? Or do you think you have some kind of case for something yourself?

To refute the entire basis of the grievance. There's a double standard being applied that is inappropriate and quite dishonest.

Re your point 2 - The grievee statement refers to a witness yet I will not have had sight of their statements when I go into that meeting which is being recorded verbatim and hosted by an external mediator

The external investigator won't give the person at the centre of the grievance any visibility to the whole grievance (for example if there are other matters that don't relate to them) nor any witness statements that contribute to the body of evidence. The person will only be given specific points that relate to them, giving them a fair opportunity to give their side of the situation.

If you feel you have not been given that fair opportunity you should be given the chance to tell the investigator what you weren't happy about. And that objection has to be minuted. Also, you can object to any question that you feel is negatively biased or a 'leading question' that paint you into a corner unfairly.

Hi, thanks daisychain. Had the grievance interview. Had prepped a response which gave a lot of detail including a fair bit that had been given by the grievee

Maybe you'll have to forgive my naivety around not knowing that you'd go into a meeting prepared to defend yourself without knowing what people have said about you (bearing in mind they are specifically named in the grievance as are their responses to the grievee's initial canvassing of them). Firstly I've no idea really about these processes as in 33 years of employment I've never had one, or a warning, or anything like that. Secondly, the accusation is one that I find absolutely abhorrent to be accused of an it's been absolutely unbelievably upsetting. However, I believe the extra detail I had and the fact that the independent person doing the interview was very fair and more importantly (to me) I felt that when I was explaining some of the detail missing from the grievance statement, that she understood the more subtle points I raised, including that the person making the grievance had actually failed to follow three parts of the grievance process themselves and were in fact more in breach of the policy than I was!

I'm very much hoping that we can conclude the matter without recourse to any disciplinary actions against myself.

Thanks for your support with this, it is very much appreciated - both yourself and Flowery.