Workplace Bullying Support Services

A grievance is a formal complaint about a workplace issue, such as bullying, which is raised internally and needs to be addressed by the employer. To file one, you should follow your employer's grievance procedure, typically found in your employee handbook. This is a very important step for lots of reasons:

1) It highlights the situation to your employer

2) It requires them to look into the situation and address it

3) If you ever decide to complain to a Tribunal about your treatment, failing to file a grievance first can lead to a reduction of up to 25% in your compensation

If it is possible to address things informally, that can often be better as grievances do tend to damage relationships and are stressful for all involved including you as the person reporting the concern. However, there are many situations where addressing things informally is either not possible or has not been effective and a grievance is absolutely the right thing to do.

There is a standard process for grievances which your employer should follow:

1) Your employer should invite you to a meeting to discuss your grievance

2) Your grievance is likely to need to be investigated. This involves speaking to witnesses and gathering other types of evidence (such as emails, messages, CCTV, logs). Investigation can take a bit of time (typically it will take a few weeks - 2 or 3 - but sometimes it can take 2 to 3 months). How long depends on how complex the issues are and how organised your employer is

You will then get a decision on whether your grievance is upheld or not. If it is, your employer will take some action. They may dismiss the bully if the events were serious, or just issue a disciplinary warning. If it is not, nothing more will happen.

Some other FAQs for the grievance process are:

1) Will I have to continue to work with the person accused of bullying during the grievance investigation?

This will depend on your employer and whether there are reasons why you can’t work together. You can certainly ask for them to be suspended, moved somewhere else, or for arrangements to be made that you don’t have to cross over. You should explain to your employer why this is necessary. For example: you will feel intimidated, you think they will interfere with other witnesses and stop them from speaking up, they will destroy evidence (such as delete logs or emails).

2) Who will investigate my grievance? That is for your employer to decide but it should be someone who is trained to do it and can be independent. If there is no such person who works for your employer, you could ask them to appoint someone external.

3) Can I be fired for raising a grievance? This is rare in our experience as it would typically be very risky for your employer to do so. especially if it concerns discrimination or a breach of some kind of legal obligation by the employer. They could face a number of legal claims from you. Take advice if you think this has happened.

4) What happens if my grievance is not upheld? Nothing. Work continues as normal. It is common for an investigation to find that there was no bullying but to recognise that the person causing you issues could have behaved better, in which case the person causing you issues will often be asked to attend training or coaching. This can be an effective way of getting them to change their conduct. Should they fail to change their behaviour, the employer is likely to take it more seriously next time.

5) What are the downsides of filing a grievance? The process can be stressful and can damage relationships. It is quite an adversarial process, so leaves people at the end feeling like they have either won or lost depending on whether the investigation finds bullying or not. It should however not have any formal adverse consequences for you. Retaliation against employees for filing a complaint is prohibited.

6) What if I am retaliated against for raising a grievance?

Retaliation against employees for filing a complaint is prohibited. You should report any such behaviour immediately as it may constitute further grounds for complaint both internally and, potentially, legally. Take advice if you think this has happened.

7) My employer does not have a grievance policy, what should I do?

Just file a grievance anyway and reference the fact that this is in line with ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.

There are strict time limits for starting a claim in an Employment Tribunal. Most claims must be started within 3 months minus a day of the unlawful event or the day you stop being an employee.

Starting a claim means contacting ACAS to start the early conciliation process. This is a quick, easy and free step to take. You can call the early conciliation ACAS team on 0300 123 1122.

If you are considering any form of legal action, we strongly recommend seeking legal advice, particularly if you are considering resigning or need to understand whether you have a discrimination or whistleblowing claim. We also suggest exploring all other options (e.g. workplace mediation) before deciding litigation is the right way forward. If you're considering resigning due to bullying, it's important to act quickly (typically within a few days) after the thing happens which, taken with the rest of what happened, means you feel you have no choice but to resign. This will help demonstrate that the bullying caused your resignation.

Don’t delay if your employer is taking a long time to respond to your grievance (e.g. formal grievance letter), as litigation time limits are not extended for this.

Different types of claim entitle you to different types of compensation. Even if you can claim a specific loss by raising multiple claims, you can only receive compensation for that loss once. For example, the fact that you can claim loss of notice both because it's a breach of contract and another type of claims does not mean you will receive your notice twice.

A breach of contract claim

If you resigned because of the bullying and walked away before the end of your notice period, you’ll be entitled to whatever you would have received for the notice period you didn’t work. An unfair dismissal claim: You will receive compensation under two main headings:

• Basic award: This is calculated based on your years of service and age. You can use the government calculator to calculate it
• Compensatory award: This compensates you for the financial loss caused by the unfair dismissal in terms of lost earnings (past and future) and lost benefits (including pension contributions). The current maximum award is £115,115 or 52 weeks' pay, whichever is lower. The average unfair dismissal award in 2023/2024 was £13,749

An Equality Act 2010, whistleblowing or negligence claim

You will receive compensation to put you back in the position you would have been in if this hadn’t happened. This falls in 3 categories:

• Compensation for injury to feelings (typically between £500 and £58,700, depending on how serious the case is)
• Compensation for personal injury (requires medical evidence)
• Compensation for lost income (past and future losses for as long as it is reasonable for you not to have found a way of earning as much)

One of the main differences with an unfair dismissal claim is that there is no cap on how much you can recover.

The injury to feelings award will fall in one of three categories called the "Vento bands":

Lower Band: £1,200 to £12,100 – applicable to less serious cases.

Typical Examples:

• Minor or one-off incidents of discrimination
• Brief or relatively low-level discriminatory conduct
• Minimal impact on the individual’s emotional or psychological well-being

Middle Band: £12,100 to £36,400 – for cases more serious than those in the lower band but not severe enough for the upper band.

Typical Examples:

• Ongoing or repeated instances of discriminatory treatment
• Considerable harm to an employee’s sense of dignity
• Actions resulting in marked emotional distress

Upper Band: £36,400 to £60,700 – reserved for the most serious forms of discrimination.

Typical Examples:

• Exceptionally serious or egregious discrimination
• Persistent and deliberate discriminatory behaviour
• Significant psychological harm to the individual
• Multiple incidents of discrimination

In the most exceptional cases, awards may exceed £60,700. This may apply to prolonged, entrenched discriminatory behaviour by an employer towards an employee over a long period. How much you get within each band will be determined by the level of impact the incident has had on you.