Notice of grievance appeal meeting

If you deny an employee the right to appeal against a grievance decision, you will be in breach of the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, as well as your own grievance procedure. Use our notice of grievance appeal meeting letter to inform the employee of the date and time of the meeting.

A right of appeal

It’s essential that you allow the employee the right of appeal against your grievance decision - although obviously if you found in the employee’s favour on the grievance, then they won’t have anything to appeal about! The Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures provides that if the employee informs you that they wish to appeal, you must then invite them to attend a further meeting to determine the appeal and then inform the employee of your final decision. If they do appeal, someone other than you should consider the facts to see if the grievance decision reached was fair. Use our Notice of Grievance Appeal Meeting letter to set up the date and time of the meeting and point out the employee’s rights. If you unreasonably fail to follow any provision of the Acas Code of Practice and the employee subsequently brings their complaint that was the subject of their grievance before an employment tribunal and wins, the tribunal has the discretion to apply an increase of up to 25% on the compensation awarded against you.

The appeal meeting

The person who chairs the appeal meeting should preferably be more senior than the original decision-maker and they must not have been previously involved in the grievance procedure. This is to ensure that they remain unbiased and not subject to undue influence. In small organisations where it’s not possible to have a different manager hear the appeal, the person dealing with the appeal should act as impartially as possible.