Disciplinary & Grievance Procedures - Acas

(b) Situations in which the Statutory Procedures havenot been completed but are treated as having beencomplied withThe Disciplinary and Dismissal Procedures are treated as havingbeen complied with where all stages of the procedure have beencompleted, other than the right of appeal, and:• the employee then applies to the employment tribunal forinterim relief; or• a collective agreement provides for a right of appeal,which the employee exercises.The Grievance Procedures are treated as having been compliedwith where:• the employee is complaining that action short of dismissal to whichthe standard disciplinary procedure applies is not genuinely ongrounds of conduct or capability, or involves unlawfuldiscrimination, and the employee has raised that complaint as awritten grievance before any appeal hearing under a statutoryprocedure or, if none is being followed, before presenting a tribunalcomplaint; or• the employment has ended and the employee has raised a writtengrievance, but it has become not reasonably practical to have ameeting or an appeal. However, the employer must still give theemployee a written answer to the grievance; or• an official of a recognised independent union or other appropriaterepresentative has raised the grievance on behalf of two or morenamed employees. Employees sharing the grievance may chooseone of their number to act as a representative; or• the employee pursues the grievance using a procedure availableunder an industry-level collective agreement.(c) Other Special Circumstances in which the StatutoryProcedures need not be begun or completedIn addition, neither the employer nor employee need begin aprocedure (which will then be treated as not applying), or comply witha particular requirement of it (but will still be deemed to havecomplied) if the reason for not beginning or not complying is:• the reasonable belief that doing so would result in a significantthreat to themselves, any other person, or their or any otherpersons’ property;• because they have been subjected to harassment and reasonablybelieve that doing so would result in further harassment; or• because it is not practicable to do so within a reasonable period.446 CODE OF PRACTICE 1 – DISCIPLINARY AND GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES SECTION 4 – ANNEXES 47