Raising a formal grievance

[downandout01]

I want to raise a formal grievance at work and am doing so off the back of legal advice I've received from 2 separate employment solicitors (one I accessed via my home insurance and one I accessed via the charity Pregnant then screwed). In my grievance letter should I make it explicit that I have sought legal advice about my situation and based on this am raising a formal grievance?
Or is it better to not alert my employer to fact I have been given legal advice and advised to take this action? I don't want to get their backs up and come across as ridiculously heavy handed/give semi threatening vibes along lines of 'I'm going to set employment lawyers on you' sort of thing.
Any advice welcome, thank you.

I'm assuming that you have exhausted earlier parts of the process?

IANAL or HR bod but for now I would just detail the legal advice you have received, no need to say it came from a lawyer.

Good luck!

What have you done so far before it’s got to this stage and are you following your Contract of Employment complaints/grievance procedure. I don’t see any harm in mentioning you have received legal advice.

There is a very long pre story to this which begins with a refused flex work request.
The grievance isn't about the work request being refused per se but about an option that came off the back of the appeal against the refusal, now also being refused when a similar arrangement was given to someone else in the same job role as me- but who wasn't on maternity leave.

The legal advice given feels I've exhausted all informal routes because they happened as post appeal meeting discussion. Both solicitors were quite clear that it is a waste of time to continue trying to discuss things informally and next step is to bring a grievance.

I honestly do not think it makes the slightest difference whether you mention that you spoke to solicitors when you lodge your grievance or otherwise.

I do wonder if it futile though, considering you have already been through the request process and the appeal process. A declined flexible working request does not make a grievance generally, was the other person in the exact same position as you?

@Aprilx the only difference I can discern from speaking to the colleague in question is that she isn't on maternity leave and I am. She has never taken a maternity leave and I have taken 2 (this one included).

I am also complaining that company policy re flexible working requests wasn't followed properly at the initial stage and the ceo even acknowledged this in the appeals meeting. I feel by not following the policy correctly I was placed at a disadvantage in terms of exploring other possible flexible options informally and forced straight to appeals stage where- give credit where credit due- the ceo asked what other options they could take back to consider however as they don't work directly in my place of work it was tricky to have a useful or exploratory discussion about this in the appeals meeting.
I know that another colleague currently on mat leave has been through the process and they followed policy fully and correctly with her (albeit didn't agree her request)

As you say, I'm not pinning my hopes on a changed outcome re flex work however I do have some other outcomes I would like from raising the grievance.