Statutory grievance

Q: I have raised a written grievance with my employer because I have not been paid a bonus that I am entitled to. My manager keeps putting off the grievance meeting, and I believe he has no intention of resolving it. I want to make a tribunal claim. Do I have to wait until my grievance has been heard before I can do so? I'm worried that if I wait I will miss the deadline.

A: As you are obviously aware, the statutory grievance procedures do apply to claims for unlawful deduction of wages, so you have to follow those procedures before you can make a tribunal claim. But once you have sent the Step 1 written statement of grievance, you only have to wait 28 days before you can issue a claim.

Although the purpose of the procedures is to encourage employees and employers to resolve disputes before going to a tribunal, you do not have to wait until the grievance has actually been heard.

In the recent case of Shergold v Fieldway Medical Centre (UKEAT/0487/05), the Employment Appeal Tribunal rejected the employer's argument that, because it had not known the full details of a grivance and had therefore not had the opportunity to deal with it, the resulting claim should not be admitted. The EAT said the employer had had enough information to know what the grievance was about, and that this was irrelevant anyway in deciding whether the claim should be admitted.