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  • Academic employment
  • Staff handbook - Academic-related staff
  • Staff handbook - Support staff
    • 1: introduction
    • 2: staffing structure
    • 3: terms and conditions of employment
    • 4: sickness, maternity leave and leave for other reasons
    • 5: codes of practice and other university policies
    • 6: safety, welfare, training, and promotion
    • 7: amenities
    • 8: disciplinary and grievance procedures
      • 8.1: Grievance, disciplinary and capability procedures: introduction
      • 8.2 Formal disciplinary procedure
      • 8.3 Disciplinary procedures: probationary employees
      • 8.4 Individual Grievance Procedure: introduction
      • 8.5 Employee Representation: introduction
      • 8.6 Recognition Agreement: Joint Committee for University Support Staff
    • 9: miscellaneous
  • Research staff
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  • Joint committees and staff representation
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8.4.2 Individual grievance procedure for all University support staff

Formal procedure

Where an employee believes that it is either not appropriate to deal with a matter informally, or when an attempt at informal resolution has not been successful, and he or she wishes still to pursue the matter, the procedure set out below should be used.

Employee representation

At each stage of the grievance procedure the employee has the right to be accompanied at any meeting by a union representative, or by an accredited elected representative or other colleague of his or her choice from within the University.

When arrangements for a meeting are being made it will be for the employee to arrange for the representative or person accompanying him or her to attend. If the employee's representative is unavailable at the proposed time the meeting may be postponed, normally for no more than five working days, in order to facilitate his or her attendance.

The member of staff should also give advance notice to the person chairing the meeting of the name of any person accompanying him or her.

Record keeping

Written records, which will be agreed with and made available to the employee, will be kept at each stage of the formal procedure. Employees should note that, when a grievance is formally raised, it is not possible for documents and complaints to be kept "off the record"; those complained about are entitled to know the details of the complaint and to respond to it.

Timescales

The timescales set out in the formal procedure are indicative of what is required for a complaint to receive an appropriately prompt response. Where it becomes apparent that additional time is required this should be discussed with the employee concerned. Employees should note that, where an aggrieved employee has chosen not to follow the informal procedure, it will be more likely that additional time will be required to manage the formal stages.

The departmental stage

The objective of the departmental stage of the formal grievance procedure is to deal with a complaint locally and promptly to ensure, after the complaint has been clearly set out, and carefully and impartially considered, that, whenever possible, a final response is made which resolves the matter as set out in the introduction to the individual grievance procedure.

Bringing a formal grievance

The employee must set out his or her signed grievance in writing to the departmental administrator or equivalent ("the administrator").

Where the administrator has already been informally involved in addressing the matters forming the grievance, and the employee concerned so wishes, the administrator may appoint a nominee to undertake the following steps (that will otherwise be undertaken by the administrator). Where the complaint is against the administrator the head of department or equivalent (or, where he or she is not available or has already been involved, another senior member of staff in the department) will nominate an impartial alternative to take on the administrator's role in respect of progressing the grievance.

Preliminary meeting with the administrator

The administrator will invite the employee to a meeting at which the employee will, where this is not already clear, be invited to explain the basis for his or her grievance in order that the administrator can inform the investigation that will then be undertaken. The administrator will, where necessary, offer to arrange assistance for the employee with the written presentation of his or her grievance.

Once informed in writing of the basis of the employee's grievance the administrator will request a written response from any other party he or she considers appropriate. Written responses should normally be returned to the administrator within five working days of receipt of his or her request.

Departmental meeting

Once the responses to the grievance have been received the administrator will arrange a meeting to hear the grievance, which will be chaired by the head of department or equivalent or, where he or she is not available or has already been involved, by another senior member of staff in the department. Departmental meetings will normally be convened with five days' notice to the parties concerned.

• The head of department or equivalent, or his or her nominee, will be advised by Personnel Services as to the procedure to be followed in dealing with the employee's appeal. Personnel Services will, in appropriate cases, on request, provide an officer to advise the head of department or equivalent and to make a formal record of the meeting.
• The head of department or equivalent, or his or her nominee, may, if he or she thinks it appropriate to do so, consider alternatives to either upholding or not upholding the grievance and discuss these with the parties during the course of drawing up his or her report.
• The head of department or equivalent, or his or her nominee will write to the parties, normally within five working days of the meeting, setting out his or her findings and resolving the grievance as described in the introduction to the individual grievance procedure.

The head of department or equivalent's report (or the report of his or her nominee) will also inform the complainant of the means by which he or she may progress a grievance to the final university stage should he or she remain dissatisfied with the decision reached.

The final university appeal stage

It is expected that the great majority of grievances will be satisfactorily resolved within the department concerned. Where, exceptionally, a grievance cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant within his or her department, a final university appeal stage may be invoked as follows.

The complainant may refer the matter to the joint secretaries of the relevant representative body. Appeals should normally be referred within 14 days of the employee having received his or her department's decision. The joint secretaries may be contacted via Personnel Services at the University Offices:

• In the case of support staff this is the Joint Committee for University Support Staff (JCUSS).

Appeals forwarded to the joint secretaries must include:

• written details of the complaint, and
• the reasons why the employee is dissatisfied with the outcome at the departmental level.

On receipt of an appeal the joint secretaries will forward the written details to the department concerned. The department should reply within five working days, setting out the steps taken to date in the department to resolve the matter and the rationale for the decision with which the employee remains dissatisfied.

On receipt of the departmental response the chairman of the joint committee will arrange the convening of an appeal panel, which will normally meet within ten working days of the receipt of the response. Such panels will normally be convened with at least five days' notice to the parties concerned.

The appeal panel

An appeal panel will be chaired by the head of the division concerned or by an alternate acting on his or her authority. In coming to his or her decision the appeal panel chairman will be assisted by two other employees, one of whom may, if the employee so requests, be drawn from the same staff group as the aggrieved employee. Appeal panel members will not be drawn from the department where the grievance originated. An officer of Personnel Services will be present to advise the chairman and to make a formal record of the hearing.

In selecting the members of the appeal panel the chairman of the joint committee will also take account of the nature of the complaint and of any personal characteristics that the employee has identified as being of particular importance to him or her and will use his or her best endeavours to meet any such requests that have been made.

The hearing will enable the parties to put their cases, to present evidence from any witnesses, and to question the statements made by the other party and his or her witnesses. A full time officer of the employee's trade union (if he or she is a member) will have the right to be received by the panel and, if necessary, the panel will adjourn at the request of the employee to enable such an officer to attend.

• The chairman of the panel may, if he or she thinks it appropriate to do so, consider alternatives to either upholding or not upholding the grievance and discuss these with the parties during the course of drawing up his or her report.

The chairman of the panel will write to the parties, normally within ten working days of the hearing, to convey his or her decision, which will resolve the grievance as described in the introduction to the individual grievance procedure.

The decision of the appeal panel is final; there will be no further right of appeal.

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