Beware the Post-It Note Grievance

A Carlisle solicitors firm is warning employers not to be caught out by new employee grievance procedures after recent Employment Appeal Tribunal judgements.

Burnetts Solicitors has taken the unusual step of issuing an advisory letter to hundreds of clients in the wake of several rulings against employers who had not appreciated that any written complaint from an employee would have to be treated as an official grievance, whether or not that had been the employee's intention.

New statutory procedures for dealing with grievances were introduced in October 2004. The aim was to give the grievance procedure more credibility with employers and to encourage parties to resolve their differences without litigation. Under the new legislation, an employee cannot pursue claims, like discrimination or constructive unfair dismissal, against their employer in a Tribunal unless they have previously raised a written grievance.

John Morris is Senior Partner at Burnetts and Head of the firm's Employment Law department. He said, "Employers should be aware that any complaint in writing should be treated as an official grievance and potentially the basis of an Employment Tribunal claim. It does not matter whether the written complaint is a letter, memo, email, text message or even a Post It note! Nor does it matter if the complaint is 'concealed' in a more general or even a positive document."

He continues "My advice would be to err on the side of caution - if employers receive a complaint in writing from an employee, it should be treated as a grievance and should trigger the three stage grievance procedure."

If a grievance is not recognised or is ignored, it could give rise to a complaint of constructive unfair dismissal and, in any event, any award made by a Tribunal in favour of an employee must usually be increased by 10% and may be increased by up to 50%.

John Morris is a member of the Law Society's Employment Law Committee

Notes to Editor:

Burnetts is a leading law firm based in Carlisle, with 17 partners and more than 120 staff. Burnetts provide legal services to a broad range of clients across the north of England and southern Scotland.

Relevant case references include:

Galaxy Showers Ltd v Wilson. EAT, 10.11.05 (0525/05)
Thorpe and anor v Poat and anor. EAT 18.10.05 (0503/05)
Shergold v Fieldway Medical Centre. EAT 5.12.05 (0487/05)
Mark Warner Ltd v Aspland. EAT, 8.12.05 (0531/05)

3rd April 2006