Grievances in the EAT (again!)
by Liam
It is now approaching three years since the Employment Act 2002 and the statutory grievance and statutory dismissal procedures came in to force. Cases on these procedures now appear to by flooding through the doors of the EAT thick and fast.
The latest decision in Otaiku v Rotherham Primary Care NHS Trust deals with grievances in a race discrimination case. The statutory grievance procedure provides that employees must generally raise grievances about race discrimination. However there is, surprise surprise, an exception. Employees do not need to raise a grievance where the act of discrimination is dismissal.
In Otaiku, the Claimant’s complaint was about dismissal as well as some other incidents that had occurred in the course of her employment. The grievance procedure was not complied with. Otaiku argued that as the act complained of was dismissal, she did not need to raise a grievance in order to be able to pursue her claim. The Tribunal allowed her claim in respect of her dismissal to proceed, but not her claim about the other incidents.
The EAT held that this was the wrong approach, that the grievance procedures should be interpreted widely and accordingly no grievance was necessary. All the issues should be allowed to proceed to a full hearing.
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