What is the minimum an employer must offer an employee in terms of access to a grievance procedure?
Can an employer deal with a grievance informally?
Is an employee who does not submit a written grievance barred from bringing a tribunal claim based on his or her complaint?
Who should deal with an employee's grievance?
What should an employer do if an employee retracts a grievance?
Where a grievance hearing has been arranged but the employee subsequently cannot make the arranged time, how should the employer handle the situation?
Must a disciplinary or grievance hearing be held during an employee’s normal working hours if these are outside normal office hours?
What should the employer do if an employee fails to attend a meeting under the grievance procedure?
Can an employer anonymise witness statements obtained during a grievance or disciplinary procedure?
Do workers have the right to be accompanied at a grievance hearing?
For the purpose of the right to be accompanied how is a disciplinary or grievance hearing defined?
What is a "reasonable" request by a worker to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing?
Section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 provides that, if a worker makes a reasonable request to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing, the employer must allow him or her to be accompanied by a trade union representative or by a fellow worker.
Situations where the request may not be reasonable include where the worker’s chosen companion will not be available to attend a hearing within a reasonable time, for example because of illness, holiday, work or other commitments. The issue of the reasonableness of the request is a matter of fact in the particular circumstances. Employers should carefully justify any rejection of a request by reference to the principles of the Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures (PDF format, 1.58MB) (on the Acas website), including the need to deal with matters promptly and without undue delay.
The code gives two examples of when a request may not be reasonable, which relate to the choice of companion rather than the request itself: first, where the chosen companion’s presence would prejudice the hearing or involve a conflict of interest (as would be the case where disciplinary action for the same facts is being pursued against the proposed companion, or where the proposed companion is involved in the proceedings as a witness); and second, where there are suitable colleagues available at the same site, but the worker requests the attendance of a companion from a remote geographical location.
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Who can be chosen as a companion at a disciplinary or grievance hearing?
Can an employer reject an employee’s choice of companion for a disciplinary or grievance hearing?
Must an employer permit a 16 or 17 year old to be accompanied by a parent at a disciplinary or grievance hearing?
Where an employer recognises one union can a worker ask to be accompanied by an official of another union at a disciplinary or grievance hearing?
Where an employee chooses to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing by a union official, is the official required to be qualified or trained in this role?
Is a fellow worker or trade union official obliged to accept a request to accompany a worker at a disciplinary or grievance hearing?
Does a worker have to be a union member to request to be accompanied by a trade union official at a disciplinary or grievance hearing?
What is the companion's role at a disciplinary or grievance hearing?