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Introduction to this document

Letter treating grievance as disciplinary appeal

Where an employee submits a grievance after receiving a disciplinary sanction, it might be that their grievance is actually an appeal against that sanction.

Appeals process

If an employee isn’t satisfied with the outcome of a disciplinary process, normally because they’ve received a written warning, final written warning or been dismissed, they have the option to appeal under the terms of your Disciplinary Procedure. You then need to arrange a disciplinary appeal hearing to hear their appeal and, after the hearing, notify them of the outcome of their appeal - see our Notice of Disciplinary Appeal Hearing and our Letter Following Disciplinary Appeal Hearing.

Is it an appeal?

However, sometimes an employee chooses to ignore this appeal route, even though you’ve clearly notified them of their right of appeal, and instead purports to raise a grievance. So, where a grievance is raised by an employee shortly after a disciplinary sanction has been imposed on them, check whether or not it’s entirely an appeal against that sanction. Provided that’s all it is, you can deal with it as part of your appeals process, and you don’t need to follow a separate grievance procedure. Do tread cautiously here though when concluding that a grievance is, in fact, an appeal against a disciplinary outcome - if the grievance also raises other issues (such as discrimination, harassment or bullying allegations), follow your grievance procedure at least in relation to those issues. If in any doubt, revert to the employee to clarify their grievance and what objective they have in mind and then explain the difference between a disciplinary appeal and a new grievance.

Letter contents

Our Letter Treating Grievance as Disciplinary Appeal is for use in those cases where it is appropriate for you to treat a grievance as an appeal against a disciplinary outcome. It advises the employee that’s what you’re going to do and therefore that you’ll address the submissions made in their grievance letter during a disciplinary appeal hearing, and you’ll contact them shortly to invite them to attend that hearing.