Grievance Form

Initiating Action
Resolving your grievance
1The College has an HR Code of Practice on Grievance to enable its staff to raise and if possible
resolve work issues. The Code is available on the HR website or from the HR Department. The
procedure is outlined and explained briefly below.

No-blame option
There is a space on the form in which you can indicate whether you want the grievance to be
handled using a “no-blame” approach. Many people want their issues to be addressed but do
not want to “make trouble” for other staff who may be named in the grievance. For example,
they may simply want a decision to be reconsidered or the treatment they are complaining
about to stop. They may not be seeking to have other staff disciplined. Adopting a no-blame
approach is often helpful since it opens the way for all the parties to focus on the resolution to
the problem rather than establishing and pursuing blame. For very serious matters, the
College may be required to over-rule any request you make to deal with the matter in a no-
blame context. However, any person named in your grievance will normally be told that you
originally raised a no-blame grievance.

Stages of the Grievance Procedure

1. Informal Stage
2Most problems can be tackled informally – a quiet word may be all that is required. You should
therefore attempt resolve any problems at work informally with your managers and any other
people involved. (The appropriate person to lodge your grievance with is discussed below.)
Even at the informal stage, you may find it helpful to complete this form, since it is designed to
help you think about the remedy you are seeking and capture the information that your
manager will need to deal with your complaint.
2. Formal stage
3If you are not satisfied with any remedy offered at the informal stage, you may raise the
matter as a formal grievance, normally with your head of department, provided you do so
within 10 working days of getting the decision at the informal stage. If your head of
department believes that the grievance could be resolved informally, they may refer it back to
the informal stage.
3. Appeal Stage
If you are still not satisfied with the remedy being offered, you can appeal against the decision
or action taken at the formal complaint stage. Your appeal will be heard by a panel of people
with no previous involvement in the case. You can lodge your appeal with the Director of
Human Resources, within 10 working days of receiving the decision at the formal stage.

Lodging your grievance with the right manager

Informal stages
4At the informal stage you should raise your grievance with a manager who is capable of
providing the remedy that you are seeking. Normally, this will be your line manager. In some
cases, at the informal stage, your manager may be the subject of your grievance. If so, you
should raise the matter with your manager’s manager.
Cross-department grievances
5In some cases you may wish to raise an informal grievance about a member of staff in
another department. In such cases you would normally raise the matter with their line manager
rather than your own, since they would be better placed to remedy your grievance.
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Formal stages
6If you are not satisfied with the remedy at the informal stage, you have the right to raise the
matter with your head of department or director of institute.

Time-scales
7The College expects you to minimise any disadvantage you are suffering and help clear the
air by raising matters in good time, and before memories fade. The College reserves the right
to exclude complaints about any matters that:
1 happened (or came to your attention) more than three months ago, or
2 are not raised again within three months of management’s response.

Appropriate use of the grievance procedure

The Code of Practice on Grievance can be used to raise most problems that you face at work.
You may, for example, wish to challenge a decision that your manager (or another manager)
has made, complain about the way you are affected by conduct in a work setting of your fellow
employees (or customers of or suppliers to the College). Or you may wish to complain about
the practical effect on you of one of the College’s policies. All of these are appropriate issues to
raise through the grievance procedure.

8However there are some matters that cannot be raised as grievances.

Other Codes of Practice
9For example, some College procedures, including the HR Codes of Practice on Discipline,
Remedying Poor Performance, Probation, Reviewing Fixed-term Contracts, etc., make provision
for you to present your side of things in a meeting and include a right of appeal. So if you wish
to complain about a decision made under such a procedure, you should raise the matter at the
appeal stage rather than raise a grievance.
10Sometimes staff feel that one of the HR procedures is being applied to them unjustly and
seek to raise a grievance about that. But rather than lodge a grievance, you should raise your
concerns during the hearing and if need be at an appeal. In practice your concerns will form
part of your defence or appeal. The issues you raise will be considered by the managers
dealing with the case at the same time as they hear any evidence against you.
Other Specific College Procedures
11Sometimes the College has a procedure which is tailored to deal with a specific issue. For
example, the College has a dedicated procedure for investigating an allegation of Misconduct in
Academic Research, such as plagiarism, complaints about students can be made under the
Code on Student Discipline, etc.
12If the College has such a procedure you should use that (rather than the grievance
procedure) since it will have been shaped to consider and take account of all the matters
appropriate to that issue.
Employees of the College
13You must be working for the College to raise a grievance. Students have their own
complaints procedure. They cannot use the grievance procedure (unless they are also
employed by the College - and they wish to complain about an issue that relates to their
employment rather than their studies). Former employees can use the grievance procedure
provided the matter is raised within 3 months of their leaving. The college will deal with such a
grievance using a simplified process.
“Whistle-blowing”
14Sometimes people want to raise serious complaints about matters of public concern rather
than the way they themselves have been treated. For example, a person may wish to raise

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concerns about such things as financial irregularities, examination malpractice, criminal or
unethical conduct, etc. The College has a Whistle-blowing Procedure which you can use to
make confidential reports of such matters. The grievance procedure is not an appropriate way
to deal with such issues.

The next steps

15If you are a member of a trade union, it is often helpful to take advice before completing the
form. Once it is complete, sign and date it, then copy it and keep a copy. Then raise the matter
with the appropriate manager [see above].

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You and your job
Your Full Name       Department      
Job Title       Section      
Phone Number       Work Address      

Your representative (if you have one)

Full Name       Union/Organisat      
ion
Phone Number       Address      

Remedy sought
Briefly describe what you want to happen. How can matters be put right? What will resolve your
grievance?
     

Issues and people involved

16I feel I have been treated unfairly or wrongly as a result of:-

(Please tick any appropriate box)
the conduct of one or more people;
a management decision which is wrong or unfair;
the operation of a College procedure or practice which is unfair;
some other substantial reason.
Please give the following information (if you have it) about any people directly involved:-
Full Name Job Title Department
                 
                 
                 
                 
                 
                 

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Describe any incidents

Date of incident      
Description
     
Date of incident      
Description
     
Date of incident0      
Description

Date of incident      

Description
     

Please summarise your complaint

What is it about these incidents that you are complaining about?
     

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Action already taken
Briefly describe what you have already done to raise and resolve the issue:
     

Preferred approach to resolving the issue

No blame approach
Sometimes, an employee may simply want the treatment of which they are complaining to stop.
Sometimes, seeking to apportion blame may raise the stakes and thus get in the way of finding
a practical and effective remedy to a grievance. However, in some cases, the College may have
an over-riding duty to take action under the disciplinary procedure or to involve audit, or other
external agencies such as the police. Such cases are not appropriate for a “no blame” approach.
17Please indicate your preference:
Yes, I want the grievance to be handled using a no-blame approach
No, I do not want the grievance to be handled using a no-blame approach
Other options for resolving the grievance
How do you think the remedy you have outlined above can be achieved?
Arbitration
Mediation
Counselling for some or all of the staff involved
(More information about the processes above is set out in the document Key Concepts:
Grievance, available on the HR web-site or from the HR Department.)
Some other plan of action (please say what below)
     

Signature and Declaration

1 I declare that I am raising this matter in good faith and that the details I have given are
accurate to the best of my knowledge.
2 The matter can be properly dealt with under the Grievance procedure and is not about:
–a a decision taken under a procedure which offers a right of appeal
–b a decision to apply an HR Code of Practice
–c work issues over which the College has no discretion or authority.
Signature Date
     

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