Dealing with grievances informally
The Company aims to be responsive to concerns raised by employees and if you are unhappy with something affecting you at work you are encouraged to raise this with your room leader. If that is not possible then you should speak to your nursery manager who will try to assist you in resolving any issue you may have. The following procedure is designed to be used when these informal attempts to resolve any dispute have not been successful.
Formal grievance procedure
Examples of issues that could be dealt with under the grievance procedure include:
- terms and conditions of employment;
- health and safety;
- work relations;
- bullying and harassment;
- new working practices;
- working environment;
- organisational change; and
- discrimination.
The Grievance Procedure should not be used to complain about issues which do not directly relate to, or impact on, you and your work/ working environment.
The Grievance Procedure should not be used to complain about disciplinary action, reasonable action taken under the Performance Management Procedure or Sickness Absence Procedure. Any such complaints should be dealt with under the relevant appeal procedure.
Raising a Grievance
If you feel that the matter needs to be raised formally you should raise a grievance by making a written complaint, stating that it is being made under this procedure. You should give as much information about your grievance, including any relevant dates and times, as you can, so as to allow for any investigation into your concerns to take place.
A grievance will normally be dealt with by your nursery manager and should be addressed to them directly. Where the grievance is directly concerned with your nursery manager’s behaviour, however, you should submit your grievance to the Managing Director who will arrange for somebody who is not directly involved in the issue to deal with it.
Grievance Hearing
A grievance hearing will then be arranged so that you can explain the issue and suggest how it can be resolved. There may be some cases where your grievance can be dealt with in writing, subject to your agreement. You will have the right to be accompanied by a fellow employee or trade union official to any grievance hearing. The manager conducting the hearing will consider what you have said and may either deal with the matter immediately or decide to carry out further investigations. In that case the hearing will be adjourned until the investigation has been completed.
Once the investigations are concluded, if new information comes to light, if it is considered appropriate, you may be invited to a reconvened meeting, to have the opportunity to consider and respond to the findings of the investigation. Following this a decision on the outcome of your grievance will be made.
Allegations of Misconduct
Where you are making allegations of misconduct on the part of other employees then the Company may need to carry out an investigation into the allegations and pursue the matter through the disciplinary procedures. Where this happens the grievance will be held over until the disciplinary process has been concluded and it may not be possible for the Company to provide you with specific detail in relation to what disciplinary action, if any, has been taken.
Relationship with Other Procedures
Where your grievance relates to the conduct of other procedures such as the disciplinary or performance management procedures then the Company may choose to either delay the consideration of the grievance until that procedure has been completed or to deal with the grievance in the course of that procedure or by way of appeal if that appears to be a fairer or more straightforward way of dealing with the issue.
Appeals
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of a grievance then you may appeal. You should submit your appeal in writing stating your full grounds of appeal within one week of being informed of the outcome of your grievance. Your appeal should be directed to the person named in the grievance outcome letter. An appeal hearing will then be convened and conducted by an appropriate member of the senior management team. You will have the right to be accompanied at the appeal by a fellow employee or trade union official. The outcome of any appeal will be final.