Grievance 




Employees should normally follow their employer’s grievance procedure before resigning and claiming constructive dismissal. Close attention should be paid to the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, available to download with supporting Guidance from the Acas website. Unjustified failure by either side to follow the Acas Code can result in an increase or cut to compensation of up to 25%. 




Employers often use other more specific procedures to deal with particular types of complaint, such as those involving bullying, harassment or whistleblowing. Where a procedure is available, both sides should follow it.




The Acas Code on grievance procedures



Here are the most important features of the Code:


• the employee should set out their grievance in writing;



• the employer should arrange a meeting to discuss it;



• the employee should make every effort to attend;



• the employee has the right to be accompanied by their chosen companion, who can be a union rep or existing work colleague (see Chapter 5);



• both sides must avoid unreasonable delay;



• employers must act consistently;



• employers must carry out all necessary investigations to establish the facts;



• employees must be given the right to appeal; and



• employees should be given a copy of the meeting record and any minutes.



A serious failure to investigate a grievance can be a fundamental breach of the duty of mutual trust and confidence. Every employee has an implied fundamental right to have their grievance properly dealt with (W A Goold (Pearmak) v McConnell [1995] IRLR 516). It is important to take legal advice and to watch out for time limits. 




A claim for constructive unfair dismissal must be launched (by submitting an Acas EC Notification Form, see Chapter 14) within three months (less one day) of the resignation date. This deadline applies whether or not the grievance process has been completed or any appeal is still outstanding.



An employee who resigns with “immediate effect” in response to a fundamental contract breach will end the employment contract straightaway. There is no need for the resignation to be accepted by the employer for it to be effective. For example, in Secretary of State for Justice v Hibbert [2013] UKEAT/0289/13/GE, an employee wrote to her employer, using the words “I have no alternative but to resign”. The EAT said that these words brought the contract to an end immediately (see also: Effective date of termination, page 347).



Although a tribunal has discretion to extend time where it was not reasonably practicable to issue an unfair dismissal claim in time, the fact that the employee delayed because a grievance process had not been completed is not treated by tribunals as a good excuse for missing the deadline (see: Extending time to bring a dismissal claim, page 350).