Statutory grievance

Case 9: The facts

When Mrs Wild brought an equal pay claim against her employer, the tribunal held a pre-hearing review to decide whether she had raised a relevant grievance first. It found that she had told a personnel officer that she was not being paid on an equal basis to men in similar roles, and that this was against the law. She had then written a letter in which she stated that her employer had not paid her fairly, but did not specify that this was in relation to men or amounted to sex discrimination.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the tribunal's ruling that the letter did constitute a grievance for the purposes of the statutory procedures. A written grievance does not have to be in any technical terms, it said, and the tribunal must consider it in context. The context here was that the letter followed a verbal complaint by Wild that she was being paid less than men, which is an equal pay claim.

The tribunal had been entitled to read the letter against that background and find that it amounted to a statutory grievance. In addition, the employer had been given the opportunity at the hearing to adjourn so that it could produce additional evidence, but had refused.

Serco Group plc v Wild UKEAT/0519/06