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Browse frequently asked questions and answers on key HR issues. Navigate by topic or key word search. View latest additions or suggest a question to the XpertHR editorial team.
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? 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?
Under s.10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999, the companion must be permitted to address the hearing in order to put the worker's case, sum up the case and respond on the worker's behalf to any view expressed at the hearing. He or she must also be permitted to confer with the worker during the hearing. However, the companion has no right to answer questions on behalf of the worker, to address the hearing if the worker does not wish him or her to do so, or to prevent the employer explaining its case.
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