Pitfalls to avoid when responding to a grievance

Pitfalls to avoid when responding to a grievance

Grievances can be disruptive and take up valuable management time, even when relatively straightforward. However, if employees’ grievances are not addressed, they can grow in complexity.  For example, if there are a series of historic grievances, if new grievances are added during the process, or if the grievance is related to a manager’s actions to improve performance. For employers who ignore issues or to take short cuts, this could create far greater risks in the longer term. As the enhanced rights under the new Employment Rights Act 2025 come into force, these risks will only increase. We therefore recommend that employers proactively address their employees’ grievances to minimise these risks.

‘Seeking an informal resolution to a grievance can be a proportionate and appropriate response in many cases, however misjudging this could be costly to the employer,’ says Annalie King, Partner and Head of Employment Law at Kerseys Solicitors.  ‘Other pitfalls that employers sometimes fall into include trying to limit the scope of allegations that will be investigated or failing to complete a fair investigation, or by failing to address the grievance all together.’

Annalie looks at pitfalls to avoid when identifying grievances, particularly when employers are looking for the most efficient way to respond to a grievance.

Failing to spot a grievance

A grievance is any complaint or concern an employee raises about something affecting them at work.  Employers should be aware, that whilst ideal to have a written grievance which details the employee’s concerns, strictly speaking grievances do not have to be in writing although it is recommended.

If an employee states that they want an issue to be dealt with as a grievance, it should be treated as such.  Exceptions to this could be where the issue can be dealt with on an informal basis.

There is no specific format for raising a grievance. Even if your grievance procedure asks employees to complete a form for raising grievances, an employee’s complaint can still count as a grievance if they do not use the form, or as mentioned above, put it in writing.

Failing to attempt informal resolution

The Acas Code sets out the key principles and basic steps that an employer needs to follow, such as dealing with the grievance promptly and giving the employee the right to appeal the decision. The Acas Code suggests attempting to resolve the grievance on an informal basis first, where appropriate.

Not every grievance has to take up lots of time and resources, particularly if it is appropriate to resolve the grievance on an informal basis. This could just be a conversation between the complainant and their line manager.

Failing to formalise a recurrent complaint

Do not ignore an employee who continues to raise the same concerns, even after a manager has tried to resolve the issue.  If the employee continues to raise the same concerns, then it is evidence that the concerns have not been resolved and you should ask the employee if they wish to raise their concerns as a formal grievance.  If so, the employer can request the grievance to be put in writing for it to be addressed on a formal basis.

Failing to move into the formal grievance procedure

The informal route will not be appropriate for more serious allegations, particularly involving discrimination or harassment. Care should also be taken not to minimise the employee’s experience by deciding that the issue is too trivial to consider at all or under the full process. Managers should be particularly alert to this, when dealing with complaints of discrimination which are outside the manager’s own lived experience.

Failing to apply the grievance procedure consistently

When considering whether or not to go straight to the formal process, employers should take a consistent approach or document the reason for taking a different approach. This should reduce legal risk if ever the organisation’s way of handling the grievance becomes the subject matter of a tribunal claim, either from the complaining employee or the subject of the grievance.

For example, a black employee may have a successful race discrimination claim if a grievance against them is dealt with under the formal process, but the employer took an informal approach in response to a similar complaint against a colleague of a different race. Without an adequate explanation from the employer for different treatment, a tribunal can infer that the reason for this was discriminatory.

Failing to address old complaints

An employee may raise a grievance that covers a recent incident or concern and also throw in a catalogue of complaints going back months or years. The employer may be tempted to draw a cut-off point and say that the window for raising old complaints has closed. This could be based on concerns about the difficulty of establishing what happened; memories fade and managers may have left.

Before doing this – even if your policy allows it – we suggest speaking to us, particularly if the employee alleges discriminatory treatment. The employee may see these incidents as a chain of linked issues. Although the time limit to bring an employment tribunal claim is usually within three months of an incident, an employment tribunal may allow older allegations to be heard if they are part of a course of conduct. From October 2026, under the new Employment Rights Act 2025, the time limit will increase to six months.

Failing to allow an employee to add to their grievance

As the grievance process progresses, the employee may decide that there are other issues they want to add to their grievance or they may raise a new grievance about related issues.

Although this can be frustrating for the employer, an employment tribunal would usually expect the employer to be flexible, particularly during the earlier stages of the process, and you should consider the new allegations.

Dealing with a connected grievance and disciplinary action

It is not unusual for an employee to raise a grievance about a manager taking action against them, for instance relating to poor performance or misconduct. It may be possible to feed the grievance into the other process.

Again, we suggest taking care and seeking advice before doing so because the nature of the grievance could undermine the fairness of the other process. For example, if the employee alleges that they are being discriminated against by the disciplining manager, it may be safer to pause the management process to investigate the grievance.

Disciplining an employee for bringing a grievance

In rare cases, a grievance can be treated as vexatious and, if so, the employer may be justified in taking disciplinary action against the complainant.

We recommend being cautious with this approach and speaking to us first. Extra care needs to be taken if the grievance included allegations of discrimination, as this would protect the employee from being victimised in response to making the allegations. Employees are also protected from victimisation or less favourable treatment in other circumstances, for example if their grievance is also a whistleblowing disclosure.

Disciplining or other retaliation, such as excluding the employee from meetings or denying access to promotion opportunities could allow an employee to resign and claim constructive unfair dismissal.

Failing to treat grievances seriously

There are a plenty of reasons to treat grievances seriously and deal with them appropriately:

• it could resolve a problem, which if left to fester, could form the basis of a claim to an employment tribunal;
• it could shine a light on poor management, a discriminatory culture or unfair treatment that needs to be addressed;
• provided it has been dealt with fairly, if the outcome is to reject the grievance, the manager should be able to close down the issue and ask the employee to move on;
• employees have a right to redress for their grievances. If their grievance is not properly considered, the employer could be in breach of contract, allowing the employee to resign and claim constructive unfair dismissal. Employers should bear in mind that from January 2027, employees will be able to bring a standard unfair dismissal claim once they have only six months’ service, rather than the two years’ minimum currently required; and
• if an employee brings a successful claim in the employment tribunal, the compensation awarded can be increased by up to 25% if the employer does not comply with the Acas Code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures (the Acas Code) when responding to a grievance.

How we can help

We can provide you with a well-drafted grievance procedure, which is essential for dealing effectively with grievances. Different questions can come up for different grievances, that would not usually be covered by a procedure. We can advise you on these to ensure a fair process that would stand up to scrutiny by a tribunal and minimise risk to your business.

For further information, please contact:

Kerseys Solicitors in Ipswich at [email protected] or telephone 01473 213311 or
Kerseys Solicitors in Felixstowe at [email protected] on 01394 834557 or
Kerseys Solicitors in Woodbridge at [email protected] on 01394 813732 or
Kerseys Solicitors in Colchester at [email protected] on 01206 584584 or
Kerseys Solicitors in Stowmarket at [email protected] on 01449 613631 or

visit our website and click “Call Me Back” where a member of our employment law team will be happy to contact you at a time that is convenient to you.