How do you raise a Personal Grievance?
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Email them within 90 days. Easy, done. Next question. It’s a little more complicated than that, so it’s worth a bit of discussion, but most of the time you have 90 days.
You have 90 days to inform your employer that you dispute matters.
I talk about what you can raise a PG about (see here), but these aren’t problems until you specifically tell your employer that you have a problem with them. Without getting too philosophical (does a tree fall in the forest etc), but a problem isn’t a problem until someone has a problem. The most egregious crime isn’t a crime until it has a victim. So major events or minor events only become PGs when an employee declares their dispute by notifying the employer that they are raising a PG.
If your PG is for sexual harassment, you have 12 months.
This section is particularly complex, so I reiterate the point above, this is educational content, not legal advice – consult a lawyer for a definitive opinion on your specific situation.
How is it done?
By writing (or emailing) your employer that you are raising a personal grievance about x (see here for what grounds). There is no form you fill out, no specific documentation required by the government, but probably the only thing you need to do is specifically use the terms ‘raising personal grievance’. This is important because there is always communication between a boss and their reports, between employees and HR, and some it is employees complaining, so it can be a bit ambiguous whether it’s a PG or just general unhappiness.
It's not impossible to later argue that you had raised a PG when you emailed your boss about something you were unhappy about, and quite frequently the courts do have to figure out whether that was a PG or not, but you don’t want to be in that situation. If you do want to raise a PG, make it unequivocal- say you are raising a PG.
The clock it starts when it happens
This is really important, and people fall foul of this all the time. You have 90 days to raise the PG once you know about what you are disputing.
Most of the time, this is straightforward. If you are dismissed, given a warning, had your contract changed, there is a clear time from which we start counting. You have 90 days from the day you were dismissed to raise a PG.
Where it gets grey is where it wasn’t something specifically brought to your attention, but then the clock starts from when you became aware of it. To give an example, if you boss had excluded you for discriminatory grounds (e.g. age) from a benefit, but you don’t find out you are missing out until 6 months later, then that is when the 90 days starts.
You can’t stick cards in your back pocket
This is important, because it’s really common. Extremely common; in fact I’m prepared to predict you are doing right now. But don’t feel bad, it’s human nature, but unfortunately it doesn’t work in a court of law.
People have problems with things at work all the time, it’s just the nature of having work cooperatively with others- perceived disadvantages, slights, frustrations of unfair treament. But most of the these problems aren’t raised at all, let alone raised as PGs. But when under pressure, its very common for people to start bringing these issues up- like pulling out an ace from the back pocket as a defence. It’s not that they won’t be relevant, but most of the time they are whataboutist fallacies (see here for more). But the reality is- if you have a problem that you wish to raise a PG about, you need to do it within 90 days, you can’t wait for a more strategic time.
You can apply out of time
If time is up, you can apply to raise out of time, and often there are good reasons for applying out of time. But it’s not easy- either your employer needs to agree, or the courts need to grant you leave. This means (unless your employer agrees, and they won’t) that you need to go to court first before even getting to mediation, and that’s expensive. So if you have a problem, get on to it. Maybe don’t do it on a whim, or just in case, because of how your employer will react (see here for more).
