6. General Principles
6.1 At any stage of the procedure, those involved in attempting a resolution or in investigating a complaint must act fairly and in accordance with good practice and the principles set out below. Any person against whom a complaint has been made has the right to know the nature and sufficient details of the complaint in order to respond. It is important that no decision is taken until the complaint has been investigated and any Respondent has had the opportunity to respond. All persons involved in the procedure should be fully conversant with the procedure and guidance contained in this document.
6.2 Communication
6.2.1 The Responsible Person must ensure there is clear, regular and confidential communication with the Employee and anyone else involved in the grievance throughout the process. This helps to avoid misunderstandings, stress or other mental health issues, and further action, such as subsequent grievances.
6.3 Formal meetings
6.3.1 It is recommended that at least 5 working days' notice is given to attend any meeting under the formal resolution process, including investigation meetings, grievance meetings and appeal hearings.
6.3.2 Where circumstances require it, and in particular, to avoid delay, the meeting or hearing may be held by way of video or teleconference with the agreement of all parties but it will not be recorded.
6.4 Companions
6.4.1 The Employee may be accompanied by a work colleague, a trade union representative or an official employed by a trade union, to any meetings under the formal resolution process. A trade union representative who is not an employed official must have been certified by their union as being competent to accompany an Employee. The Employee should provide enough time for the University to deal with the companion’s attendance at the meeting and in good time ahead of any meeting.
6.4.2 If the chosen companion is unavailable at the time the University has proposed for the meeting, the Employee must notify the HR Representative supporting the grievance immediately so that an alternative time can be arranged. The University will postpone the hearing to a time proposed by the Employee provided that the alternative time is reasonable and ideally not more than five working days after the date originally proposed. The Employee should bear in mind the practicalities of the arrangements and seek to avoid choosing a companion whose availability will unduly delay the process.
6.4.3 The companion will be required to maintain appropriate confidentiality.
6.4.4 The companion will be allowed to address the meeting, to put and sum up the Employee’s case, respond on behalf of the Employee to any views expressed at the meeting and confer with the Employee during the meeting. The companion does not, however, have the right to answer questions on the Employee’s behalf, address the hearing if the Employee does not wish it or prevent the employer from explaining their case.
6.4.5 A companion does not have to agree to attend a meeting if invited. The role is voluntary. They will receive paid time off work to attend the meeting.
6.4.6 It may also be appropriate to permit any Respondent to be accompanied at meetings under the formal resolution procedure.
6.5 Confidentiality
6.5.1 In order to safeguard individuals, confidentiality must be strictly respected and information limited to those who need to know (and only to the extent necessary) for the purposes of the operation of these procedures and for maintenance of good order in the University. The University reserves the right to seek advice from its advisors or to involve appropriate external authorities if it believes that it is under an obligation to do so. Any breach of confidentiality by any party may result in disciplinary action being instigated.
6.6 Timescales
6.6.1 The Employee should make a complaint in a timely fashion (normally immediately after the incident or at the latest within three months of the most recent incident or occurrence of the behaviour complained about). If there is good reason, this timeframe can be extended, for example where a complainant does not feel able to make a complaint without initial support or counselling.
6.6.2 Grievances should be resolved without unreasonable delay in the interests of all parties. Where there are unavoidable delays, the Responsible Person should explain the reasons for the delay and keep all parties informed of progress. If anyone involved has concerns about the timeframes, they should raise them with the HR representative supporting the grievance.
6.7 Conflict of interest
6.7.1 A conflict of interest exists when the duties owed by an individual to the University conflict with, or may possibly conflict with a personal, financial or other interest or duty that the individual holds and/or with the interests of someone who has a close personal connection to the individual (including, but not limited to, any children, in-laws, siblings, partner or spouse). If any party has concerns about conflicts of interest, they should raise them immediately with the HR representative dealing with the case to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
6.8 Recording of meetings
6.8.1 Meetings held under this policy should not be electronically recorded (whether audio or video) by any party. Any such recordings made without consent may result in disciplinary action.
6.8.2 Instead, there should be someone present to take a note of the meeting and attendees will be given the opportunity to comment on their accuracy. The meeting notes will provide a summary of the key discussion points and are not intended to be verbatim.
6.8.3 Any person interviewed during the investigation will be sent a copy of the notes of the meeting and asked to confirm it is a factually accurate note of their interview. Any proposed amendments should be received by the person investigating within 5 working days of the Interviewee receiving the meeting notes.
6.8.4 Where it is not possible to agree a single note, both versions will be provided to the Responsible Person (where this is not the person investigating).
6.8.5 In exceptional circumstances, names and identities of Interviewees may be kept confidential and not disclosed to a party, for instance in cases where there is a genuine risk of physical harm or retaliation. If any Interviewee has concerns about revealing their identity, they should raise this with the person investigating without delay, so that a view may be reached with the assistance of the relevant HR Business Partnering Team.
6.9 Redacting
6.9.1 In some circumstances it may be necessary to redact documents and/or meeting notes. Redacting may happen when information is presented that is not directly relevant to the grievance or its relevant context and which could cause offence, is inflammatory, financially or commercially sensitive, personal data and/or otherwise confidential. Any redacting is usually done by the HR Business Partnering team in conjunction with the Responsible Person.
6.10 Decision making
6.10.1 Where evidence is contested or contradictory, the decision as to what happened will be taken on the balance of probabilities, i.e. whether it is more probable than not that a specific incident occurred as described.
6.10.2 What is perceived by one individual as inappropriate behaviour may not necessarily be perceived in the same way by another. When deciding the appropriateness of behaviour, factors that will be taken into consideration include the specific context, the motive or intent of the individual demonstrating the behaviour, the impact on the individual and whether that impact or effect is reasonable in the circumstances and the standards set out in the Code of Behaviour.
6.11 Record keeping
6.11.1 The central HR team will keep a written record of any grievance cases, including: the grievance; any investigation report; the decision and actions taken; the reason for the actions; whether an appeal was lodged; the outcome of the appeal and any subsequent developments. Records will be treated as confidential and be kept no longer than necessary in accordance with the storage limitation principles as set out in the relevant data protection legislation.
6.12 Accessibility and support
6.12.1 If any aspect of the grievance procedure causes an employee or their companion difficulty on account of any disability that they may have, or if they need assistance because English is not their first language, they should raise this issue with the HR Representative supporting the grievance who will arrange for any reasonable adjustments to be made.
6.12.2 A grievance process can be stressful for everyone involved and different individuals will respond differently to stressful situations. Sometimes a process may cause extreme distress and even impact on a person’s mental health. Where there are signs of this happening to anyone involved in the process, the University will consider whether the process can be adjusted in some way and those involved in the process should signpost the individual to support available to them within the University or to their GP, if appropriate.
6.12.3 Further information on support services can be found on the University Wellbeing pages and includes internal and external support providers. Details can also be found in the Dignity at Work policy (2023 ed.).
6.13 The handling of grievances and training for managers
6.13.1 The handling of grievances can be a sensitive matter, particularly where employees are complaining about another employee, for instance their attitude, or behaviour.
6.13.2 It is recommended that managers attend the training courses aimed at helping them become more confident in dealing with people and handling difficult conversations. For more information, please go to University's Personal and Professional Development (PPD) pages.
6.14 Malicious or vexatious complaints
6.14.1 A vexatious complaint is one that is made solely or mainly to harass, annoy or subdue another person, or something that is unreasonable, without foundation, frivolous, repetitive, deliberately burdensome or unwarranted.
6.14.2 A malicious complaint is one that is made with the intention of causing harm by seeking to defame a colleague or manager, through knowingly providing false or misleading information or withholding information about an incident or issue.
6.15 Overlapping procedures
6.15.1 If a complaint falls across more than one University procedure, the University will deal with the matter as flexibly, fairly and proportionately as possible. In the event that it is not possible to reach a decision about identifying the appropriate procedure to follow through discussion, the matter should be referred to the Director of Human Resources, whose decision will be final.
6.16 Victimisation
6.16.1 Employees must not be treated less favourably because they have made or supported a grievance in good faith.