Statutory Grievance Procedure

As aficionados of employment law will know, tribunals consistently strain to turn lumps of clay into statutory grievances so that employees are not shut out from bringing tribunal applications.

But there is a limit, the EAT has held in Dick Lovett v Evans. Notwithstanding the Canary Wharf case, which held that employers should be taken to have regard to the factual background against which a written grievance letter is sent, it goes too far to impute an employer with knowledge arising from a meeting occurring after the date the 'grievance' letter was sent.

On the facts, a letter complaining of nosebleeds was insufficient to amount to a statutory grievance letter complaining of pregnancy discrimination, notwithstanding that a few days later, the employee told the employer that she believed the two were connected.