Making a complaint

Making a complaint informally means talking to the person at your workplace who can make the situation better. This may be your manager or, if it is your manager who you believe is unlawfully discriminating against you, with someone higher up. In a small organisation, it may be your employer themselves.

It is a good idea to ask your manager or employer for a meeting, so that there is enough time for you to talk about what has happened and to say what you'd like them to do.

The meeting needs to be somewhere where you can talk to your manager or employer without other people hearing what you are saying.

Even though it is an informal meeting, you can still prepare by writing down what you want to say. This can help you make sure you have said everything you intended to.

This may be especially important if you work for a small organisation and it is the person in charge (who may be the only manager) who has done what you want to complain about. If possible, you may get a better result from the meeting if you can explain what has happened in a way that does not immediately make your employer feel you are blaming them for doing something wrong.

If you need help with this, you could  ask your trade union, a colleague or a friend. It may help to practise what you want to say.

Your manager or employer may need time to think about what has happened and what to do about it. They may need to talk to other people to find out if they saw or heard anything. Tell your manager or employer if you agree to them doing this. If you do not agree, this may make it harder for them to find out what happened.

Your manager or employer should tell you what they are going to do and inform you of the outcome.

If after investigating what has happened, your manager or employer decides:

• no unlawful discrimination took place, or
• that they are not responsible for what has happened

they should tell you this is what they have decided within a reasonable timeframe.

If they don't explain why they decided this, you can request this information. They do not have to comply, but if they do it may help you to decide what to do next (for example, if it is worth taking things further).

You then have two options:

• sccept the outcome
• take things further by making a formal complaint using any procedures your employer has for doing this.

If your employer or manager agrees with you that what happened was unlawful discrimination, then they will want to make sure it does not happen again.

You may not need to do anything other than carry on with your job as usual. Or your employer may want you to do something such as meeting the person who discriminated against you. In any case, you may need to go on working with that person.

Don’t feel that you have to do anything you are not comfortable with. However, it may help sort things out to do what your employer suggests, if necessary with some expert help, for example, from your trade union or from another person or organisation, such as a mediator. 

If the discrimination was serious or just one of a series of events, your employer may want to take disciplinary action against the person who discriminated against you. You would probably have to explain to a disciplinary hearing what happened. You may be able to get help or support in doing this from your trade union if you have one.

If your employer does not tell you what they have decided, even after you have reminded them, then you can either make a formal complaint or make an Employment Tribunal claim. Make sure you know when the last day is for bringing your claim so you don’t miss this deadline.

If you are not satisfied with the result of your informal complaint, then you can make a formal complaint using your employer's set procedures. It is the use of the set procedures that makes it ‘formal’.

A formal complaint is often called a ‘grievance’.

Your employer should be able to tell you what their procedures are.

If they don’t have any information they can give you, there is a standard procedure which you can get from Acas. Your employer can use this too if, for example, they don't have their own procedures.

If you are not happy about the outcome of a grievance procedure, then you have a right to appeal.

If you or your employer want to get help in sorting out a complaint about discrimination, you can agree to what is usually called ‘alternative dispute resolution’ or ADR. ADR involves finding a way of sorting out the complaint without a formal Tribunal hearing. ADR techniques include mediation and conciliation.

In complaints relating to work situations, this can happen:

• as part of an informal process
• when formal grievance procedures are being used, or
• before an Employment Tribunal claim has been brought or finally decided.

There are different organisations who may be able to help with this, such as:

• Your trade union
• Acas
• The Advice Services Alliance (ASA) archive information service.

There is more information about the options at GOV.UK.

Acas in particular runs a free conciliation service.

The action your employer can take will depend on the specific details of the case and its seriousness. Your employer should take into consideration any underlying circumstances and the outcome of previous similar cases. Actions your employer could take include:

• Some form of alternative dispute resolution (which is explained above), which may be especially useful where you and the person who discriminated have to carry on working together.
• Equality training for the person who discriminated.
• Appropriate disciplinary action (your employer can find out more about disciplinary procedures from Acas).

If your employer hears your grievance and any appeal but decides that you weren't unlawfully discriminated against, they still need to find a way for everyone to continue to work together.

Your employer may be able to do this themselves, or it may be better to bring in help from outside as with alternative dispute resolution (which is explained above).