Drawing up grievance procedures

The Acas Code suggests the following:

• involve management, employees and their representatives where appropriate;

• explain procedures to employees and make sure they have a copy or ready access to a copy of them.

Under the Acas Code, employers and agencies are only required to provide grievance procedures to “employees”. However, it is good practice for agencies and hirers to permit all workers to use grievance procedures to deal with their problems at work, and some unions have won agreement from agencies and/or hirers that these procedures are accessible to all. There is a strong case for encouraging hirers to do this, especially given that under the Agency Workers Regulations 2011, an employment tribunal may find them liable for breaches of the equal treatment rights on pay, holiday and working time.

For guidance on making the case for extending grievance procedures to agency workers, see section 11 of the TUC bargaining guide, Delivering equal treatment for agency workers, available to download from the TUC website.