The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) has found that a written note of a grievance, recorded by a manager at a meeting with the complainant, was enough to satisfy the requirements of step one of the statutory disputes procedure.
The statutory procedure requires that a grievance is put in writing to an employer before an employee can pursue the matter at an employment tribunal. This is step one of the procedure. In other EAT cases, resignation letters, e-mails and solicitors’ letters have all been ruled as meeting the step one requirement.
In this particular case, a complaint of discrimination was made to a manager at a meeting and the details were recorded accurately at the time. The EAT chairman concluded, “In my view, Parliament cannot have intended an employee, who has previously made a complaint of such discrimination to his employer and had it recorded in writing, to be debarred from an Employment Tribunal for failing to comply with Step one”. (Kennedy Scott Ltd v Francis EAT 0204/07)
Although the statutory disputes procedure is likely to be around for at least another year or so, it’s future is the subject of a current government consultation. We reported it previously at this blog post.
