How should I raise an issue with my employer?

Some employment law is undoubtedly complicated, and some employers can expand their businesses without taking the time to appreciate that responsibilities are involved in employing people, and that they need to understand employment law.

Deciding how to raise an issue with your employer is a difficult decision. Larger employers are more likely to have proper procedures, and are less likely to be in breach of the law. A disproportionate number of tribunal cases come from small employers.

At best your employer may be grateful, or at least accept that they are in the wrong. At worst they can victimise you, and although you do have special legal protection if you are treated unfairly because you have raised a legal issue, it can still be a difficult process to take the matter through an employment tribunal.

Despite the odd newspaper story about huge damages these are exceptional cases, usually involving highly paid individuals who have suffered substantial loss of earnings. Normally awards are modest, and just designed to put you in the situation that you would have been in if you had not been wronged.

If you think that it will be difficult to raise an issue with your employer directly, then there may be other ways of doing so:

• If you are in a union, then you can do so through your union representative.
• You might find it easier to put it in writing through a letter, as this might lead to a considered response. You can enclose material setting out the law.
• If the problem affects a group of people, and not just you, then think about how you might raise the issue collectively, perhaps through a petition or anonymous letter that sets out the legal position clearly. While unions may not be able to take up the problems of an individual non-member, they may be very happy to take up a group issue. It may even increase union membership and recognition in your workplace.
• If it's an issue that is policed by an external agency such the Health and Safety Executive, then you can call them in.
• Your employer is required to have a formal grievance procedure. If an informal approach is rebuffed, or unlikely to work, then you should find out about it. Details are likely to be included in a staff handbook or your contract of employment. Formalising the issue in this way may be useful if your problem is with your immediate boss, as it may involve others such as your personnel or HR department. In a formal grievance hearing, you have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or a union officer.
• Even if you are raising the issue informally, you should think about doing so with a colleague and should write down everything that happens as soon as possible. Always keep correspondence and your notes in a safe place. Perhaps also type up your notes and email them to yourself (contemporaneous notes should trump a manager’s subsequent recollection if it goes to a tribunal).