What is a personal grievance?

First things first; what is a personal grievance?   We will be talking a lot about personal grievances, so let’s cover the basics.  Put simply, it is suing your employer to put right their wrong.  You believe that your employer has done you wrong, and you want them to remedy that- either by compensating you with money, giving you your job back, agreeing to not say negative things about you, or even apologizing.

Most likely because you’ve been dismissed

Most personal grievances come about because the employee is dismissed.  Bear in mind that the employer is unlikely to use the word ‘dismissed’, and will likely sugarcoat it (part ways, let you go, etc.) but anytime your job is ended by them, and not by you, that’s dismissal.

Sometimes because you’ve quit

Some employers won’t dismiss you, but they will either indirectly pressure you to quit, straight-out ask you to quit, or change the deal without your agreement such that you have no choice but to find another job (either intentionally or accidentally).  This is called constructive dismissal. (see here), and you are entitled to raise a personal grievance saying ‘yes I quit, but I had to because you forced me to do it’.  These cases can win, but they are harder.

Sometimes you’re still there, but you’ve been significantly let down

Not all personal grievances are about employment that has stopped, sometimes it’s still going.  You can raise a personal grievance about what has happened in the workplace, which is an ‘unjustified disadvantage’ claim.  Bear in mind a few things in this situation; your employer needs to have significantly let you down in a manner that is clearly unfair, you need to have raised it with them and they didn’t do anything about it, and most importantly, such a claim is really going to damage your future relationship with them.

Do you go to court?

Most of the time, no.  Most personal grievances are sorted out before, or at mediation.  Some cases do go court, and the parties (the employer and the employer) become publicly known.  You don’t have to go to court, but your willingness to go court, and the other side’s willingness to go court is quite a strategic question when it comes to mediation (see here for more on this).