 Hi, I'm Mike, HR trainer at Cooperatives UK. Today, we'll be looking at how your cooperative should deal with employee grievances. What is a grievance? Grievances are concerns, problems or complaints raised by employees about their job. A complaint may be about their duties or workload, pay, hours or working environment, disagreements between staff members, bullying or discrimination or perhaps a health and safety issue. It is very important to tell employees how they can raise grievance and how your cooperative will deal with that complaint. A basic grievance procedure can be found in the ACAS guide on handling grievances. Download a copy at www.acas.org.uk. Any grievance procedure should encourage staff to informally discuss their complaint with their line manager with a view to finding a satisfactory outcome. If the employee is unhappy with the outcome or doesn't want to use the informal process, perhaps because of the nature of the issues, the next step will be for the employee to raise the issues formally. A formal process should include the following steps. The employee setting out their complaint in writing, your cooperative inviting the employee to a meeting, holding a meeting, investigating the issues, providing a written outcome, allowing the employee an opportunity to appeal if they are not happy with your decision. The most difficult part about dealing with grievances as an employer is recognising when one has been raised. Employees may not label their complaint as a grievance, but you'll still need to treat it as such. Ben has raised grievance about the length of his lunch break. He sends his line manager an email saying that he thinks that it is unfair that other members of staff are allowed to take longer breaks. He wants his lunch break to be extended by 15 minutes. Immediately, you spot this as a complaint about working conditions and know you need to deal with it under your cooperative's grievance procedure. The next stage is to invite Ben to a meeting to discuss the issues he has raised. Ben has a legal right to bring along a work colleague, trade union representative or official to the meeting. During the meeting, you will want to get further details about the issues Ben is raising and what he would like as an outcome. Take notes of what is said in the meeting. Afterwards, you should send Ben a copy of the notes for his records. You will need to look into the issues further to make a decision. You may decide to look at Ben's employment contract. What does it say about breaks? Find out about other workers. How long do other workers take for lunch? Find out the reasons for the length of lunch breaks. What is the legal position? Should Ben be receiving a longer break under the working time regulations? What is the impact of agreeing a longer lunch break? How will it affect customers and staff? Once you have all the information, you'll need to make a decision whether to extend Ben's lunch break. You've decided that Ben's lunch break should remain as it is, but are willing to offer a longer mid-afternoon break. It's a good idea to meet with Ben to tell him what you've decided and explain how you came to that decision. Your decision must also be put in writing. In your decision letter, you must allow Ben the opportunity to appeal your decision and have his appeal considered by an impartial manager. An appeal will involve another manager reviewing the decision you have made and looking at any new information Ben brings forward. Remember that you should comply with the Data Protection Act and keep all documents and emails relating to the grievance safe. Any grievance raising issues of discrimination needs to be handled carefully. Be aware that if the employee raising the grievance is disabled, you may need to make reasonable adjustments to the grievance process to ensure they are not put at a disadvantage. If you need any further assistance, go to the ACAS website at www.acas.org.uk Don't forget that you can take a look at the other videos on our website.