Grievance Procedure and Appeal?

[vonnie32]

I submitted a grievance against my Manager on 11th April 08 and raised 4 issues and potential solutions to each

1) Aggressive, confrontational and bullying behaviour in the work place -
2) Work related stress - I asked the organisation to contract with a relevant profession to undertake the risk assessment and to provide me with a clear policy on dealing with the issue
3) Employee Counselling- As a result of the above it came to my attention that the organisation had cancelled the Employee Counselling Service Contract without notifying me or any of my colleagues or putting anything in its place.
4) Provision of feedback to my concerns - I raised concerns directly with my manager and received no response.

My Grievance was heard on 24th April by 2 Directors in a Pub! All the way through it they made excuses for the manager and failed to listen appropriately to my concerns and never took a single note of what I said despite the fact we met for well over 2 hours. They agreed that what was happening was wrong and that he should not have said what he did and they would sort things out.

They were interviewing the manager the following day and said I would be hearing from them shortly - after 3 weeks I had heard nothing so I called them, it took a further 2 phone calls before I finally received a response on the 20th May stating my grievance was unfounded, no details of my right to appeal or the timescale for this and no notes of the investigation.

[vonnie32]

Oh I have written and requested the notes and appeals policy and they have written back saying......
They are too busy to give me the notes although they have stated thorough notes of my observations were taken and......
I do have a right to appeal and I should send my appeal to this person within 7 days of the date of their letter but the grievance procedure in our terms and conditions of employment does not state a timescale for submitting a grievance!

My questions are

1. Am I appealing or do I ask them to do it all again since they made such a hash of the first attempt and provided personal opinion and defence of the manager - clearly not being objective?
2. If I do appeal does this need to be done in the stated 7 days?
3. I have a disciplinary hearing on Thursday which is directly related to this grievance should I do anything about this ie put my concerns about this in writing to them?
4. How can someone else hear my appeal if there were no notes taken at the original hearing and they are now refusing to send me copies of the thorough notes they took?
5. What would be my grounds for appeal?

I've never done any of this before so any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Vonnie x

[vonnie32]

Have had a stab at getting a letter of appeal done can anyone have a look and see what they think?

Dear x
Re: Grievance submitted on x April 2008
Thank your for your letter dated x and received on x
I am sorry to hear that both you and x have serious issues going on in relation to your caring responsibilities. I understand it cannot be easy and the strain on your time has obviously been seriously affected as a result and I completely understand.
Please note I wish to record my intention to appeal against your decision and will furnish you with my full grounds in due course, as I do not wish to miss the 7 days deadline you have set. However, in order to make my grounds as complete as possible I require the notes of my grievance interview and the interview conducted with x.
I understand that this may take some time in the circumstances, but I would appreciate written confirmation of your acceptance of my appeal.
I look forward to hearing from you in due course and in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information or clarification.
Yours sincerely

[vonnie32]

Sent letter recorded delivery last night - so will see what they say.

[tiglet]

Good luck with this - let us know what they come back with.

[vonnie32]

Ok first response is they have postponed my disciplinary until my grievance is concluded. So first victory there then.

And accepted my letter as an appeal -so I will await with baited breath the interview notes taken.

In the meantime I have seen a solicitor and he thinks I might have a case to take to the employment tribunial for bullying, so he's going to review my file and let me know what my options are in the next week or so.

My colleague is also seeing the same solicitor on Monday and she is hoping to take them to tribunal for age discrimination and bullying (which would obviously help my case too).