fbpx

Grievance Procedure Template

Your staff need to understand what actions to take in the even that they have a serious problem at work, often called a grievance. A grievance is a specific word used to describe a formal staff member complaint. The complaint itself could cover a wide range of topics, from discrimination, to harassment, bullying. The complaints will typically be serious in their nature and will need to be addressed promptly and using a pre-defined grievance procedure.

Specific things a staff member might bring to their employer as part of the grievance process:

  • Health and safety issues
  • A problem related to their statutory employment rights
  • Poor treatment by one or more colleagues
  • Discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, gender reassignment, marital status or ethnic origin
  • working conditions and hours worked
  • Pay or benefits
  • Any other issue affecting their employment

The grievance procedure itself should be shared in writing and easily accessible by all employees. We typically recommend linking to the grievance procedure on the shared files section of Staff Squared, as this means all staff can access the latest version of the procedure in a central location and tick a box to confirm that they’ve read it. You should also make sure that new staff members are sign posted to the grievance procedure as part of their staff on-boarding procedure.

A basic grievance procedure must include a minimum who staff members should contact about a grievance and how to contact the person they need to speak with.

There are typically two workflows that form part of a grievance – the first is an informal flow, and the second is a formal flow. It’s typically best to attempt to resolve issues informally in the first instance, and only follow the formal process if the informal process breaks down for any reason. It’s a good idea to have both the formal and informal processes documented.

Grievances are for when staff members need to raise a complaint against their employer. If an employer needs to make a formal complaint against a member of staff, the disciplinary procedure and disciplinary procedure template must be used.