How to raise a grievance - the informal approach

Your work has a duty to tell you what their grievance procedure is. You should be able to find it by looking in your contract, written statement, staff handbook or work Intranet. The procedure should tell you how you raise a grievance, who you should raise it with, and how your grievance will be dealt with. If you can't find it, ask your line manager or personnel officer.

Your work's grievance procedure should allow for both an informal and a formal approach. It's normally best to try the informal approach first.

"I've got cerebral palsy and find climbing stairs hard. My office is on the first floor and there is no lift. I told my supervisor that I had a problem. She was really uptight about it and told me to put it all in writing and inform our Managing Partner. I didn't really want to cause a fuss, but she said that it was company policy."
Matt, Nottingham

You might find that once you touch on anything which could be seen as discrimination, alarm bells start ringing with your boss. Employers are often wary of dealing with discrimination because it is such a serious issue and if they don't address it properly, they could get in a lot of trouble. Sometimes it is company policy to deal with potential discrimination in a formal way from the outset.

The Informal Approach

Try talking to your line manager, or another manager or personnel officer who you feel comfortable with.
Make sure you speak to someone senior, who is in a position to deal with the situation.
Don't confront the person involved in the discrimination directly. If you do it is in danger of becoming a personal dispute, rather than a grievance for your employer to deal with.
Immediately after the conversation make a brief note of what was said by both of you, and the time and date you spoke.

The benefit of the informal approach is that it is quicker and less daunting than a formal grievance, and is less likely to damage your working relationships. It might be all that's needed to sort things out. But remember, even though it's informal, you still need to find out what they are going to do to deal with the problem and follow it up to make sure something is done. If they fob you off, you may have to take a formal approach.

The informal route may not be suitable for you. You might decide things have gone too far to sort it out informally, or perhaps the only person you could speak to is involved in the discrimination. If so, you are better off starting with a formal grievance.

Be aware of time limits (see Time Limits page); if you are at the three-month deadline for raising a written grievance, you might not have time to try the informal approach first.