Grievance Procedure for Employers

A workplace grievance should be taken seriously, but taking it seriously does not mean accepting the employee’s account without question.

A fair grievance procedure gives the employee an opportunity to explain their concerns and gives the employer a structured way to establish what happened, consider the evidence and decide what, if anything, should be done.

The current Acas Code of Practice requires employers and employees to deal with grievance issues promptly, act consistently, carry out any necessary investigations, allow employees to put their case, permit accompaniment at qualifying formal meetings and provide an appeal against formal decisions. Employment tribunals can also adjust compensation by up to 25% in relevant cases where an employer or employee unreasonably fails to follow the Code.

Employers dealing with a live issue can also obtain grievance support for employers where advice or assistance with the process is required.

What is a grievance?

A grievance is a concern, problem or complaint that an employee raises with their employer. It can relate to matters such as treatment by a manager or colleague, contractual issues, working arrangements, bullying, harassment, discrimination, pay or other workplace decisions.

Not every expression of dissatisfaction needs to become a lengthy formal process. Some concerns can be resolved through a conversation, clarification, management action or mediation.

Equally, an employer should not avoid a formal process simply because the complaint appears uncomfortable, exaggerated or inconvenient. Serious allegations, or complaints that the employee wants dealt with formally, will usually require a structured response.

Employers looking for guidance across wider workplace issues can also use Harrington Raine’s HR & Employment Law resources.

Informal or formal grievance?

Informal resolution can work well where the issue is relatively straightforward and the employee is comfortable with that approach. It may allow misunderstandings, communication problems or lower-level relationship issues to be resolved before positions become entrenched.

Acas recommends trying informal resolution where appropriate, but an employee can raise a formal grievance if informal steps have not worked, they do not want the matter handled informally or the issue is sufficiently serious. An employer should not force an employee to remain in an informal process where they want the issue dealt with formally.

Employers should also recognise that they may need to investigate a serious issue even if the employee is reluctant to label it a formal grievance.

For formal grievances, the current Acas Code says the employee should normally raise the matter in writing and set out the nature of the grievance. If an employee raises a serious concern verbally but refuses to put it in writing, that should not automatically end the matter. The employer should clarify what is being alleged, consider why the employee is unwilling to write it down and decide what reasonable action is required.

Step 1 — Understand the complaint

Before investigating, establish exactly what the employee is complaining about.

Labels such as “bullying”, “victimisation”, “harassment” or “unfair treatment” do not always explain the factual allegations that need to be decided.

Ask the employee to identify, as far as reasonably possible:

• what happened;
• when it happened;
• who was involved;
• specific examples or incidents;
• relevant documents or other evidence;
• any witnesses; and
• what outcome they are seeking.

A vague grievance may need clarification before a meaningful investigation can begin. That is not the same as challenging the employee simply for raising it.

The purpose is to turn a broad complaint into identifiable issues that can actually be investigated and decided.

Step 2 — Decide who should handle it

The person handling the grievance should be sufficiently impartial and senior enough to make or recommend the necessary decisions.

A line manager may be appropriate for a straightforward complaint. They may not be appropriate where they are personally involved in the allegations.

If the grievance concerns a senior manager or director, the employer should consider whether another director, senior manager, HR professional or suitably independent person should deal with it.

There is no general rule requiring every grievance to be investigated or decided by someone external to the organisation. What matters is whether the employer can provide a fair and sufficiently impartial process in the circumstances.

Smaller organisations may have limited management layers. The Acas Code expressly recognises that an organisation’s size and resources can affect what is reasonably practicable.

Where the organisation wants an experienced HR professional to conduct or chair part of the internal process, HR Consultancy & Meeting Support can provide a separate hands-on option.

Step 3 — Investigate the grievance

The investigation should be proportionate to the issues being raised.

Some grievances can be resolved by reviewing a small number of documents and speaking to the people involved. Others may require a more detailed investigation involving emails, messages, personnel records, meeting notes, CCTV or other relevant evidence.

The investigator should approach the evidence objectively. Their job is not to prove the grievance or disprove it. Acas guidance recommends gathering reasonable information from both sides and keeping the process fair and confidential.

Relevant witnesses may need to be interviewed. Witness evidence should normally be recorded accurately and the witness given an opportunity to check their statement.

Anonymous evidence should be treated cautiously. Acas recommends avoiding anonymous witness statements where possible because the person affected should ordinarily have a fair opportunity to challenge evidence. Anonymity may sometimes be justified in exceptional circumstances, such as a genuine fear of retaliation.

Employers should not promise absolute confidentiality. Information should be restricted to those who reasonably need it, but some evidence may need to be shared so that allegations can be answered fairly. Personal data should also be handled in accordance with data protection requirements. The ICO notes that witness material can contain information about several people and whether it can be disclosed requires a case-by-case assessment.

Where the same facts may lead to disciplinary action against another employee, the principles used when conducting a disciplinary investigation will often overlap.

Step 4 — Hold the grievance meeting

A formal grievance meeting should be arranged without unreasonable delay.

The Acas Code does not impose a fixed statutory number of days. Acas’s supporting guidance suggests that, where practicable, employers should aim to hold the meeting within around five working days while still allowing the employee reasonable time to prepare.

The purpose of the meeting is to understand the grievance properly. The employer should allow the employee to explain the complaint, present relevant evidence, identify witnesses and explain what they believe would resolve the issue.

The employer can ask questions, test unclear points and explore inconsistencies. Doing so fairly is part of understanding the complaint; it should not be treated as hostility towards the employee.

If new allegations or significant evidence arise during the meeting, it will often be sensible to adjourn so they can be investigated before a decision is reached.

Workers have a statutory right to be accompanied at a qualifying grievance meeting dealing with a complaint about a duty owed by the employer. The companion may be a fellow worker, a trade union representative or a trade union official. If the chosen companion is unavailable, the worker can propose a reasonable alternative time within five working days of the original meeting and the employer must postpone to that time.

Step 5 — Reach an outcome

The decision should follow the evidence rather than a predetermined view of either the employee or the person complained about.

A grievance containing several allegations does not have to receive one overall binary finding.

Harrington Raine recommends considering material allegations separately. Depending on the evidence, individual issues may reasonably be recorded as:

Upheld — the evidence supports the allegation.

Partially upheld — part of the complaint is supported, but not all of it.

Not upheld — the available evidence does not support the allegation on the balance of the information considered.

Those labels are a practical decision-making framework rather than a statutory formula.

The employer should then decide what action is appropriate. That might include management action, correcting an error, clarifying responsibilities, mediation, changes to working arrangements, training or, where evidence identifies potential misconduct by another employee, considering a separate disciplinary process.

Acas advises employers to base the outcome on the meetings and investigation, what is fair and reasonable and how similar situations have previously been handled.

Step 6 — Confirm the decision in writing

The employee should receive the grievance outcome in writing without unreasonable delay.

The letter should explain the decision sufficiently clearly for the employee to understand what has been decided and why. Where there are several allegations, addressing the material findings individually is usually clearer than simply saying that “the grievance is rejected” or “the grievance is upheld”.

The letter should also explain any action that will be taken where appropriate and confirm the employee’s right of appeal.

Care is needed where the grievance concerns another employee. The complainant may need to know that appropriate action has been taken without necessarily being entitled to confidential details about another person’s disciplinary outcome.

Step 7 — Handle any appeal

The employee should be offered an opportunity to appeal the formal grievance outcome.

The appeal may challenge the findings, the procedure, the adequacy of the investigation or rely on relevant new evidence.

The Acas Code says appeals should be dealt with impartially and, wherever possible, by a manager who has not previously been involved. This does not create a general requirement to appoint an external appeal officer.

The person dealing with the appeal should understand the grounds of appeal and decide whether further investigation is necessary. The final outcome should be confirmed in writing without unreasonable delay.

Grievances during disciplinary action

Raising a grievance does not automatically stop an existing disciplinary, capability or other workplace process.

The employer should assess how the two issues interact.

The current Acas Code says a disciplinary process may be temporarily suspended while a grievance is dealt with. Where the grievance and disciplinary issues are related, it may instead be appropriate to deal with them concurrently.

For example, a grievance alleging that the disciplinary manager is discriminating against the employee may require attention before that manager continues making decisions. A complaint about an unrelated workplace matter may not justify delaying the disciplinary process at all.

The correct approach depends on the substance of the grievance, not simply the fact that one has been submitted.

Our guide to the disciplinary procedure for employers explains the wider process where misconduct concerns are being dealt with alongside a grievance.

The same principle can apply during performance management. A grievance should be considered properly, but it does not automatically make legitimate capability concerns disappear. Employers dealing with both issues may also find our guide on how to manage poor performance useful.

Bullying, harassment and discrimination grievances

Complaints involving bullying, harassment or discrimination require particular care because they may create legal risks beyond the ordinary grievance process.

Under the Equality Act 2010, harassment can include unwanted conduct related to certain protected characteristics which has the purpose or effect of violating someone’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Victimisation protection can also apply where someone makes or supports an allegation of discrimination.

An allegation does not need ultimately to succeed for the employee to be protected from victimisation. A person who honestly believed a discrimination allegation to be true may remain protected even if the allegation is later found to be wrong. Deliberately false allegations made in bad faith are different.

Employers should also consider whether information raised through a grievance could amount to whistleblowing. Not every personal grievance is a protected disclosure: whistleblowing generally involves qualifying wrongdoing raised in the public interest. Since 6 April 2026, sexual harassment has expressly been included within the categories of wrongdoing that can support whistleblowing protection where the statutory requirements are met.

Legal change: at the date this guide was reviewed, employers are under a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. From 30 October 2026, the Employment Rights Act 2025 is scheduled to strengthen that to a duty to take all reasonable steps and introduce protection concerning harassment by third parties.

Repeated or difficult grievances

Repeated grievances can be demanding, but the employer should distinguish between genuinely new issues and complaints that simply repeat matters already investigated and appealed.

A new allegation or material new evidence may justify further investigation. Repeating an allegation without anything materially new does not necessarily mean an employer must restart the entire process indefinitely.

Keep the decision reasoned and documented.

Employers should also be cautious about describing complaints as “vexatious” or “malicious”. A grievance being rejected does not establish dishonesty.

Where there is credible evidence that an employee knowingly fabricated allegations, the employer may consider whether that conduct itself warrants investigation under the disciplinary procedure. Any disciplinary decision should be based on evidence of deliberate dishonesty rather than the fact that the original grievance was unsuccessful.

This is particularly important where discrimination, harassment or whistleblowing issues are involved because separate statutory protections may apply.

Common grievance procedure mistakes

Common problems include:

• failing to establish what is actually being alleged;
• deciding the outcome before investigating;
• allowing someone with a material conflict of interest to make the decision;
• assuming that raising a grievance means the employee must be believed;
• dismissing serious concerns as a personality clash without checking the facts;
• carrying out an investigation that is disproportionate in either direction;
• promising complete confidentiality;
• treating opinion as evidence;
• failing to explain the outcome;
• ignoring discrimination, victimisation or whistleblowing implications;
• automatically stopping another HR process whenever a grievance is raised;
• assuming an unsuccessful grievance was dishonest; and
• failing to keep adequate records.

A good procedure should leave the employer able to explain what was alleged, what was investigated, what evidence was considered, what was decided and why.

Frequently asked questions

Does every employee complaint need a formal grievance procedure?

No. Some concerns can be resolved informally. However, serious issues and complaints which the employee wants handled formally should generally be dealt with through an appropriate formal procedure.

What if the grievance is vague?

Ask the employee to clarify the events, people, dates, evidence and outcome they are relying on. The employer needs enough information to understand what it is being asked to investigate.

What if the employee is off sick?

Illness does not automatically prevent the process continuing. Consider a reasonable postponement, remote attendance, another suitable location, written representations or other adjustments. In appropriate cases, medical advice about whether the employee can participate may help, with the necessary permission. Where reasonable attempts to involve the employee have failed, the employer may ultimately need to proceed on the available evidence.

How long should a grievance procedure take?

There is no universal fixed statutory deadline. The Acas Code requires issues, meetings and decisions to be handled without unreasonable delay. The complexity of the allegations, number of witnesses, sickness absence and availability of evidence can all affect the reasonable timescale. Employers should keep the employee informed where delays arise.

Can a witness remain anonymous?

Sometimes, but anonymity should not be routine. Acas advises that anonymous witness statements should normally be avoided and used only where there is a sufficiently good reason, such as a genuine fear of retaliation. The employer still needs to preserve a fair process.

Does the investigator have to be different from the person deciding the grievance?

Not always. Separation may improve impartiality in a complex case, but there is no blanket rule requiring different people in every grievance. The organisation’s size, resources, conflicts and seriousness of the issues should guide the decision.

Can different parts of a grievance have different outcomes?

Yes. Where several allegations have been made, employers can assess them individually. One complaint might be upheld while another is not. This is often more useful than attempting to categorise the entire grievance as simply true or false.

Can an employee be disciplined for making a grievance?

An employee should not be disciplined merely because their grievance failed. If there is separate evidence that an allegation was knowingly fabricated or made dishonestly, the employer can consider whether disciplinary investigation is appropriate. Take particular care where discrimination or whistleblowing protections may apply.

What records should an employer keep?

Keep an appropriate written record of the grievance, meetings and evidence, investigation activity, decisions, reasons, correspondence and any appeal. Records should be stored and shared in accordance with applicable data protection requirements. Acas specifically recommends keeping written records of grievance cases and decisions.