At SHU Law we advise our clients to explore all the avenues available to them to try and resolve disagreements in the workplace before thinking about taking their claim to an Employment Tribunal, which should generally be a last resort. If you are able to work through your problems rather than take up time and energy in the Employment Tribunal then you can stay in greater control of the outcome and solutions as well as saving yourself time and a lot of stress.
We almost always advise our clients to use the following steps:
Discuss your concern informally with your line manager or HR department.
If that dialogue doesn’t provide a solution, then follow the employer’s formal grievance procedure.
If you are still not sure that your concerns have been addressed then think about whether or not you can in fact still work with the new arrangements that have come out of the discussions. The fact that you are not entirely satisfied or don’t feel completely vindicated doesn’t necessarily mean that your employer is wrong and even less so that you automatically have a case to take to the Tribunal.
At this stage SHU Law can advise you how best to proceed.
Where a case is put to the Tribunal, it is compulsory to first follow a procedure of Early Conciliation. ACAS manage this process by taking up to 30 days to see if they can arrange an agreement between the employee and employer. If that process succeeds, then so much the better and the matter is resolved.
Employment Tribunal claims will only be allowed where the Early Conciliation procedure outlined above has been tried and failed.
Throughout a case in the Employment Tribunal the parties will be asked if they want to mediate and find a resolution without the need for a full hearing.
If you do find yourself in dispute with your employer then please do contact us on 0114 2256666 and we will be happy to advise you on the best way to try and find a solution that works for you.
