Can I raise a grievance at work?

If your pay is short, your rota is being used to punish you, or a manager is ignoring harassment, you have the right to raise it. After your shift, save the payslip, rota or messages and write down what happened. If speaking up feels unsafe, send a short complaint to a manager who is not involved. Do not wait for the grievance process to protect a tribunal deadline.

What counts as a grievance?

A grievance is a complaint you bring to your employer about work: an unpaid shift, refused leave, bullying, discrimination or the way a disciplinary case was handled. Even friction with a colleague can be raised. The statutory right to a companion, though, applies to a grievance hearing concerning a duty the employer owes the worker, not necessarily to every workplace disagreement.

A grievance asks the employer to put something right. A protected disclosure reports wrongdoing in the public interest and has separate legal tests and protection; from 6 April 2026, disclosures about sexual harassment can qualify. A discrimination complaint can also be a protected act under equality law. Acas gives advice and helps settle disputes, but cannot investigate your employer or order it to change its decision.

Start informally if you can

For a rota mistake or a one-off comment, ask your manager for a conversation. If your manager is involved, speak to another manager or HR; a union representative can help you prepare. Describe the incident, why it matters and what would fix it. Keep a note of the date and any action agreed. A quick message after the conversation gives you a dated record.

Go straight to a written grievance if an informal approach would be unsafe or futile: for example, serious harassment, a threat of retaliation or a complaint about the person who would hear it. There is no rule that you must try informal resolution first. If compensation later turns on whether you followed the Acas Code, the tribunal considers whether your decision was reasonable in the circumstances.

The formal steps

The benchmark in Great Britain is the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, in force since 11 March 2015. It is not a cause of action by itself, but tribunals consider it in relevant cases. Under section 207A, unreasonable failure to follow it can raise or lower compensation by up to 25% in the kinds of claims covered by the legislation. It does not mean every unanswered complaint earns an award.

1. Write to an uninvolved manager. Say what happened, when, who was involved and what outcome you want. Attach key evidence; explain any informal attempt, if there was one. Send it without unreasonable delay.
2. Meet promptly. Explain the complaint and the remedy you seek. At a qualifying hearing you can request a companion. The employer should listen and adjourn if it needs to investigate.
3. Check the facts. Relevant documents and witnesses should be considered fairly; you should be able to respond to important contrary evidence.
4. Receive a written decision. The employer should tell you without unreasonable delay what action it proposes and that you may appeal.
5. Appeal if dissatisfied. State your reasons in writing; the appeal should be impartial, heard without unreasonable delay and followed by a written outcome.

Get support from your union: UNISON is a route for care and health workers, Unite for hospitality and logistics workers, and Usdaw for retail workers. Citizens Advice or a local law centre can help you understand options. Report suspected minimum-wage underpayment to HMRC; raise labour exploitation concerns with the GLAA, workplace safety risks with the HSE, and discrimination with the EHRC. These routes do different jobs from an internal grievance.

If a grievance arises during disciplinary proceedings, the employer may pause the disciplinary process or deal with both together if they overlap. A collective grievance raised on behalf of two or more employees by a recognised union or workplace representative falls outside this Code; use the collective procedure.

What must be in the written particulars?

Every worker’s written statement of employment particulars must name someone to approach for redress of a grievance and explain how to make further applications, under section 3 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The duty has extended to workers, not only employees, since 6 April 2020. An absent or incomplete statement can add two to four weeks’ pay if the worker wins a qualifying tribunal claim; the usual cap on a week’s pay applies.

That minimum is not a statutory checklist for a separate handbook policy. A useful procedure also tells you where to send a written complaint, who will hear it if your manager is involved, how meetings and investigations work, how to bring a companion and how to appeal. Ask HR or your manager for a copy. Neither the written particulars nor an internal policy removes the need for fair handling.

The meeting and who you can bring

In Great Britain, sections 10 to 13 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 give workers a statutory right to request a companion at a qualifying grievance hearing. The hearing must concern the performance of an employer’s duty to the worker. Employees, other workers, agency workers and home workers can qualify; genuinely self-employed people generally do not. The statutory choice is a fellow worker, an official employed by a trade union or a certified lay union official.

Your companion may explain and sum up your case, respond to points and confer with you; they cannot answer questions for you. If they cannot attend, propose a reasonable alternative within five working days starting with the first working day after the proposed hearing. The employer must postpone to a date meeting those conditions. The statutory right also applies at a qualifying grievance appeal hearing.

How the investigation should run

A fair investigation need not be elaborate. A manager might compare the rota with payslips and ask payroll to explain a missing shift; a harassment complaint may require separate witness interviews and a check of messages. The employer should keep a record, test competing accounts and give you a fair chance to address evidence it relies on. Confidentiality does not mean promising that no relevant allegation will be put to the person accused.

If the issue is discrimination, read how to make a discrimination complaint at work. A complaint alleging a breach of the Equality Act can amount to a protected act; retaliation because of it may be victimisation. Bullying by itself does not automatically create the same legal claim: see what you can do about bullying at work.

Appeals: grounds and who hears them

Appeal in writing without unreasonable delay. Identify the finding you dispute, any missing evidence, a flaw in the process or why the proposed remedy does not address your complaint. The appeal should be heard impartially, wherever possible by a manager who has not been involved before, with a written outcome. You can ask for a qualifying hearing to be accompanied again; you do not need fresh evidence simply to appeal.

An appeal gives the employer a chance to correct the decision. In an eligible GB claim, a tribunal may reduce compensation by up to 25% if a claimant unreasonably fails to follow the Code. That is not an automatic penalty for declining an appeal: whether it was reasonable depends on the circumstances.

Mediation and conflict resolution

Mediation can help with a relationship breakdown: a neutral person helps both sides agree how to work together. It is voluntary, and the parties can agree to pause an internal grievance while they try it. But mediation does not automatically suspend the grievance procedure or a tribunal deadline. Do not use it to avoid investigating serious allegations; it may be unsuitable where intimidation or a power imbalance prevents someone taking part freely.

Keep workplace mediation separate from Acas early conciliation. The latter is the route before most employment tribunal claims in Great Britain: you notify Acas, which offers to help settle the legal dispute. If no agreement is reached, Acas issues a certificate so you can bring a claim. Starting early conciliation within the claim time limit pauses the tribunal clock under the statutory rules; talking to a mediator at work does not.

After you have left

You can write to a former employer, but do not assume they will reopen their full internal procedure. A written response may be more practical once you have left. More important, leaving does not erase a potential claim or restart its deadline. If you resigned because an ignored grievance made continued employment impossible, get advice on constructive dismissal before the time limit expires. Ordinary constructive unfair dismissal normally still needs two years’ qualifying service as at 1 October 2026.

Can you be punished for complaining?

There is no single blanket legal ban on an employer disagreeing with, or rejecting, an ordinary grievance. But it cannot lawfully subject you to detriment or dismiss you for exercising the right to be accompanied or for acting as someone else’s companion; dismissal for that reason is automatically unfair without a qualifying period. A grievance that alleges unlawful discrimination may be a protected act under section 27 of the Equality Act 2010; one containing a qualifying protected disclosure can trigger whistleblowing protection. State what happened and keep any evidence of retaliation.

Deadlines and what delay costs

For most Great Britain employment tribunal claims, the limit is six months from the relevant act, dismissal or failure if that date is on or after 1 October 2026; earlier relevant dates generally keep the old three-month limit. This includes claims about refusing a statutory companion and most employment discrimination claims. The grievance outcome does not automatically create a fresh deadline for an earlier wrong. Scotland’s tribunal breach-of-contract time limit does not move to six months until 9 November 2026. Notify Acas within the applicable limit for early conciliation, which is normally required before a claim. For notifications from 1 December 2025, the conciliation period can last up to 12 weeks; calculate any final claim date using the statutory clock-stopping rules rather than adding 12 weeks yourself.

If you handle grievances

Give a manager an alternative contact when the complaint is about them. Record what was alleged, investigate the points that matter and tell the worker what you found, what you can disclose and how to appeal. A remark such as “my pay was short again” may need prompt attention even if it was not titled “grievance”. Train managers to recognise such complaints without treating every informal question as a formal filing.

If you work in Northern Ireland

Follow the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) Code, not the Acas Code. A tribunal may adjust an eligible award by up to 50% for unreasonable failure to follow it, rather than GB’s 25%. There is a separate statutory accompaniment right; at the NI cap of £783 a week from 6 April 2026, the two-week maximum is £1,566. Contact the LRA about early conciliation before most Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal claims. Do not assume the GB six-month time-limit reform applies in NI; check the deadline for your particular claim.