Grievances are concerns, problems or complaints that you might raise with your employer. Where possible, you should try to settle any grievance informally with your line manager. However, your employer should also have formal procedures available to you and your colleagues. Having formal grievance procedures in place allows any issues which can't be resolved informally to be given reasonable consideration and be dealt with fairly and consistently.

A grievance hearing is a meeting that deals with any grievance raised by an employee. If your employer arranges a grievance hearing there are certain considerations. They should:

• hold the meeting in private
• consider who else could hear the complaint if your grievance is about your line manager
• tell you of your right to be accompanied
• ensure an open discussion of the issue
• consider adjourning the meeting if further advice needs to be sought
• give you the chance to appeal if you're not happy with the decision

Your employer may have separate procedures to deal with particularly sensitive areas, such as complaints about Bullying and harassment, discrimination (for more detail see Equality) and whistle-blowing. These types of grievance should be treated with total confidentiality, although the outcome may become known in some cases. An example might be where disciplinary action is taken on finding an individual to have been bullying another person.  Many organisations also build in provision for mediation in their procedures for dealing with these types of issues.

There is no prescribed form which the law requires grievance handling to meet. Basic

practical guidance is provided in the form of the Acas Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievance. This sets out principles for handling disciplinary and grievance situations in the workplace. A failure to follow the Code does not, in itself, make a person or organisation liable to proceedings. However, employment tribunals

will take the Code into account when considering relevant cases. Tribunals will also be able to adjust any awards made in relevant cases by up to 25 per cent for unreasonable failure by either party to comply with any provision of the Code.

Grievances are concerns, problems or complaints raised with you by your employees. Where possible, you should encourage employees to settle them informally with their line manager, but you should also have formal procedures available to your employees. Having formal grievance procedures in place allows you to give reasonable consideration to any issues which can't be resolved informally and to deal with them fairly and consistently.

You might also want to think of writing mediation into individual grievance procedures.

Management and representatives who might have to deal with grievances should be trained for the task. Such training should focus on interpersonal skills, and should also include familiarisation with your grievance procedures and their operation.

A grievance hearing is a meeting that deals with any grievance raised by an employee. For the purposes of the legal right to be accompanied, a grievance meeting is defined as a meeting where an employer deals with a complaint about a 'duty owed by them to a worker' (see our Code of Code of Practice 1 on disciplinary and grievance procedures)When arranging a grievance hearing you should:

• hold the meeting in private
• if the grievance concerns the line manager, consider who else could hear the complaint
• tell your employee of their right to be accompanied
• ensure an open discussion of the issue
• consider adjourning the meeting if further advice needs to be sought
• avoid snap decisions – even if the solution at first seems obvious, there may be repercussions to consider
• give your employee the chance to appeal if they're not happy with the decision

You might want separate procedures to deal with particularly sensitive areas, such as complaints about Bullying and harassment, discrimination (See: Equality) and whistle-blowing. These types of grievance should be treated with total confidentiality, although the outcome may become known in some cases. An example might be where disciplinary action is taken on finding an individual to have been bullying another person (See: Discipline).  Many organisations also build in provision for mediation in their procedures for dealing with these types of issues.

There is no prescribed form which the law requires grievance handling to meet. Basic

practical guidance is provided in the form of the Acas Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievance. This sets out principles for handling disciplinary and grievance situations in the workplace. A failure to follow the Code does not, in itself, make a person or organisation liable to proceedings. However, employment tribunals

will take the Code into account when considering relevant cases. Tribunals will also be able to adjust any awards made in relevant cases by up to 25 per cent for unreasonable failure by either party to comply with any provision of the Code.