Line Manager has put in grievance against DH!

[ilovemydogandmrobama2]

Back story: DH put in grievance against line manager for a serious of bullying and harassment. DH works in a large company complete with a fully staffed HR.
The hearing was held in December 2018, and some of the charges against DH's line manager were upheld, but nothing really changed to happened.
DH now found out that he is being summoned as his line manager has lodged a grievance against him saying that DH's grievance was malicious and vexatious.
He has an outstanding union rep, but cannot understand how a line manager can raise a grievance about a grievance?

Any advice?

Anyone has a right to raise a grievance against someone's actions or behaviours, according to ACAS good practice (which most companies tend to align to in their policies).

Did your DH initially try to informally resolve his issues of B&H behaviours direct with his Line Manager, for example requesting an informal meeting that wouldn't be documented or discussed with HR? That tends to go down better than going straight to HR with no warning to the perpetrator, the Line Manager in this case.

It sounds like the LM has now retaliated (even though some points were upheld). Did the Decision Manager stipulate that the LM needed training or some actions to address his bad behaviour? If so, the fact that this was necessary surely indicates wrong doing, and therefore not vexatious at all. This is worth discussing with the Union Rep.

It can’t possibly be vexatious if some of the points were upheld!

This is a classic retaliation to being called out. Hope it goes ok.

Normally the method of pushing back would be appealing, if the grievance had resulted in formal disciplinary proceedings against the manager. If the outcome wasn’t a disciplinary hearing then the only formal recourse for the manager is a grievance. If some of the original grievance was upheld, it would be unlikely that a panel will now decide it was vexatious.

Thank you, and really great advice!

Of course it's right that it couldn't be vexatious if some of the points were upheld - obvious, isn't it!

It's really difficult to try and find out the outcome of DH's grievance as the typical response from HR is that they cannot comment due to, GDPR...

Apparently he isn't even entitled to the notes from his own interview due to GDPR, but that's another story

That doesnt dound right to me. The whole point of the gdpr is that individuals can see the information about them held by organisations. But im far from an expert. Is he in a union? Could they help him? Or acas?

HR bod here. Yes, the manager can raise a grievance (effectively a counter grievance) but for it to be upheld it would need to be proven that the original grievance was made in bad faith. That would be hard to prove.

DH just making a grievance that didn't result in formal action against the manager wouldn't be enough.

I'd always recommend mediation for both parties (if they are working together ) after a grievance has been raised, whether upheld or not, to clear the air and move on. Sounds like this did not happen after the original grievance.

DH should have a written outcome to his grievance, but it would be a breach of GDPR to say exactly what action was taken with the manager. Usually it'd just say 'appropriate further action' or something like that, with no details.

The Line Manager is digging himself into a bigger hole. Instead of accepting that his behaviour has been unacceptable in certain respects (for the Grievance points that were upheld) and taking on board any suggestions for improvement, he is becoming petulant and delusional think8ng they've done nothing wrong and deflecting the blame back onto DH.

The LM may find, if the HR team are being fair, that it will be he who is seen as vexatious under those circumstances. When these behavioural issues get to a point of spirally out of control, and affecting business operations, it is often the case the manager suddenly resigns and disappears 'under a cloud' . Hopefully that's the case here. It just becomes an almighty time-sink.

Could your DH raise a grievance against the grievance against the grievance?
I’m being facetious but if this is allowed where would it end?

What elements were upheld and which were not upheld?

Is it possible he's raising the grievance solely on the elements which were not upheld as he feels they were vexatious?

AKA, clutching at straws Sunluv

We and likely the OPs DH will never get to know all the details, so this can only be based on speculation but quite frankly if one of my team raised a grievance against me for bullying and harassment, and it was even partially upheld, I'd be doing some soul-searching and working to build bridges, not spitting my dummy out and using the process to frustrate and cause even more harm.

Lol at grievance against a grievance against a grievance hopping - it does get ridiculous doesn't it.

Grievance against a grievance against a grievance etc wouldn't happen.

Employees have the right to appeal the outcome to their grievance, and the other employee could raise a grievance against the employee who'd raised the grievance against them (counter grievance) and appeal that... after that I'd be rejecting any new attempts to raise a grievance on the same issues unless there was significantly fresh info to justify a brand new grievance.

Having said that I did once have an employee raise 6 grievances in 3 months (all sufficiently different/against different people to get around the above).