Equality impact assessment grievance procedure

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1. What is the name of the function, policy or service that is being assessed?

Grievance Procedure

2. What are the aims of the function, policy or service? Whose needs it is designed to meet? What are the current priorities?

To enable any employee who has a grievance relating to their employment to express it and for the County Council to respond effectively to it. The procedure incorporates statutory requirements and best practice advice from ACAS.

3. In what ways might this function, policy or service affect some groups of people differently? Might some groups find it harder to access the service? Do some groups have particular needs that are not well met by the current policy or service? Please ensure that you comment against each of the dimensions listed below and where no issues are identified that you state this clearly against the relevant dimension.

Information gathered and reported by the Council on non-schools employees’ use of the Grievance procedure over the last two years is shown below.

In 2005/06, 13 staff raised a formal grievance. Of these:

• none were Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) or White Irish/White Other employees
• 6 were not disabled; disability data was unknown for the other 7 employees.
• 9 were female and 4 male.

In 2006/07, 8 staff raised a formal grievance. Of these:

• 5 were White British; ethnicity was unknown for the other 3 employees
• 5 were not disabled; disability data was unknown for the other 3 employees.
• All 8 were female.

A further 21 staff had a grievance logged on HR’s Casework database but these either did not reach formal stage or did not do so within the year. Of these:

• 15 were White British; ethnicity was unknown for the other 6 employees
• 14 were not disabled; disability data was unknown for the other 7 employees.
• 19 were female; 2 male.

Of the total non-schools workforce, 80% of employees are female; 1.30% are BME; 1.60% are White Irish / White Other; 1.49% are disabled. Whilst none of the data gathered suggests anything unusual about the numbers of grievances raised by particular groups given the make-up of the workforce, clearly the figures are only based on small numbers of staff.

In addition, for staff to use the procedure, they must be clear about how to do so and confident that by doing so they will not be treated in a negative way. Therefore, low take up figures are likely to be the most important indication of a problem with the procedure.

HR policies and procedures are available on the Employee Handbook on the intranet and staff can either access these directly or via a colleague’s computer.

Staff confidence in how they will be treated if they raise a grievance clearly falls, in a number of ways, outside the written procedure but the procedure itself needs to clarify how such matters are dealt with and the safeguards that apply to staff so that they are not put off using the procedure should they feel that they need to do so.

Prior to this redrafting process, the procedure already contained a paragraph stating that an employee may raise a grievance where he/she has had a bullying or harassment complaint investigated but feels that the conduct of this was unsatisfactory.

Age

No indication / evidence available.

Disability

The 2006/07 figures show no grievances were raised by disabled staff. Clearly in some cases, some disabled staff potentially face difficulties in using the procedure, e.g. in putting a grievance in writing or in attending meetings. These issues are addressed below.

Gender

Use of the procedure has been generally in line with the proportions of male and female staff in the workforce.

Race

No Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) or White Irish/White Other employees are recorded as having raised a grievance.

Religion/belief

No indication / evidence available – religion/belief is not recorded for employees

Sexual orientation

No indication / evidence available – sexuality is not recorded for employees.

4. What evidence do you have for your judgement? Is there evidence of public concern (e.g. complaints)? Have staff raised concerns? Is there local or national research to suggest that there could be a problem?

See response to Question 3 above. In brief:

• Figures on use of the procedure do not indicate anything out-of-line with staff numbers.
• Concerns have not been raised by staff in relation to the procedure, other than in consultation with the Trades Unions at JCC (see Q5).

5. How and with whom have you consulted with as part of your assessment? What were the results? Have you published the results of that consultation? If so, where?

The revised procedure was agreed with the Trades Unions at Joint Consultative Committee 21-11-2007; Staffing Policy Committee 27-06-2007; Standards Committee 04-07-2007 (minutes available on intranet).

At JCC, Unison members were consulted fully on the procedure and they made a number of suggestions regarding the content. In particular, Unison asked for the procedure to include the point that they are able to assist a disabled member of staff, where needed, with formulating a grievance. This was therefore included in the procedure (help is also available from an HR Adviser).

Consultation with staff for the Disability Equality Scheme in 2006 (published on Wiltshire’s website) on a range of work-related issues, including HR policies and procedures, did not raise any specific problems with the procedure.

6. If you have found that the function, policy or service might have an adverse impact on a particular group of people, can you justify this?

There is no evidence of an adverse impact but the procedure is designed for all staff and therefore this would not be justifiable.

7. If the impact cannot be justified, what do you intend to do about this? Are there changes that you could introduce which would make the function, policy or service work better for this group of people? Is further research or consultation required?

The procedure has been rewritten to include a number of points (listed in the response to Q9), which should assist in ensuring that all staff are able to use the procedure and can be confident in doing so.

8. How will you monitor the take-up or impact of the function, policy or service in future?

HR gathers data on use of the Grievance Procedure each year. The data is published on Wiltshire’s website.

9. What actions do you plan to take as a result of this EIA? Please include target dates for completion of actions and resource implications where possible

The new procedure contains the following changes:

• A clearer assurance regarding fair treatment of staff who raise or assist with a grievance: “The Council will not tolerate intimidation, victimisation, retaliation or discrimination against an individual for filing a complaint or assisting in an investigation - whether or not the complaint is upheld.” (Paragraph 1.5)
• An assurance regarding confidentiality: “Records made during the grievance process will be treated as confidential and will not be kept longer than is necessary.” (Paragraph 1.7)
• An emphasis on reasonable arrangements / meetings, including arrangements for disabled staff: “Each step of this procedure and action required under it should be undertaken without unreasonable delay. The timing and location of meetings must be reasonable. Meetings must be conducted in a manner that enables both sides to explain their case. If you have a health issue or a disability which may affect meeting arrangements, you should contact HR to request suitable arrangements be made as soon as possible after you have been invited to the meeting.” (Paragraph 1.6)
• An emphasis on trying to resolve such matters informally, which is more likely to provide a satisfactory outcome. This should provide encouragement to staff to raise issues where they may otherwise be put off by immediately entering a formal process (Paragraphs 1.2/ 2.1)
• Assistance with setting out a grievance, including arrangements for disabled staff: “If you need help in setting out your grievance in writing you may seek help from a work colleague or your Trade Union representative. If you have a disability which makes it difficult for you to formulate your grievance you should seek assistance from your HR Adviser or Trade Union representative.” (Paragraph 3.2)
• Clearer explanation of the right to be accompanied and arrangements for this. (Paragraph 3.3)
• Clearer explanation of meeting arrangements, aimed at ensuring staff have a better understanding of the process and are therefore less likely to be intimidated at the prospect of formal meetings. (Paragraphs 3.5/ 3.6)

10. If no actions have been identified in section 9 above, please state when a further review of this assessment is planned

The procedure is to be reviewed in January 2009

11. Name of person completing form

Senior HR Adviser

Date assessment completed

31-01-2008

12. Name of senior manager approving assessment

Assistant Director - Corporate Services

Date assessment approved by senior manager

04-03-2008

Last updated: 14 May 2009