Grieving - how long is too long?

[KiKiDo]

Hi there

I'm wondering the average and/or acceptable turn around time for a grievance process to conclude?

I was subject to discrimination that deeply affected my mental health. I was signed off sick because of this. I raised a grievance and an initial meeting to speak with an investigator (internal) took 6 weeks. It was 5.5 months before the hearing was held. All the while I was off sick and continuously chasing for updates.

They did not issue an outcome until 3 weeks later because they combined the grievance outcome with my redundancy outcome. They did not uphold so I appealed. I have been chasing the appeal for weeks. I have now been given a preliminary date, it will be 3 months from the date I lodged the appeal.

In this time I have been made redundant and am no longer employed by them. Whenever I ask for updates and why there is a delay, they have no response, or just state diary issues.

I feel like more than 10 months is excessive to resolve a grievance. Particularly when the employee had been signed off sick because of the issues complained of and repeatedly stated that the waiting is adversely affecting their mental health.

Is this standard practice?

[KiKiDo]

Title should say grievance not grieving *♀️

[ULA]

There is actually a number of things to cover with the limited detail you have provided.

Firstly, 5.5 months to get to a grievance hearing is not, nor should be, standard practice. Grievances should be held without unreasonable delay, there should be clear communication and updates, particularly if something happens to delay the process and given you were signed off work with a mental health condition, consideration should have been given as to whether any reasonable adjustments should have been made in the process to accommodate your absence from work.

Grievance and redundancy are two separate processes and should not be combined as one process. Can I ask:

1. How long after you raised the grievance did the redundancy process start?
2. Was your role the only one made redundant or where you part of a selection pool?
3. What reasons were given for the redundancy situation?
4. Were you at any point referred for an Occupational Health assessment?
5. Can you confirm your termination date?

I am wondering if they are delaying any grievance appeal hearing until after you have exhausted the time period of 3 months less a day for brining a potential employment tribunal claim.

[KiKiDo]

Thanks for responding. Some answers below. Sorry it's so long!



How long after you raised the grievance did the redundancy process start?

The consultation for redundancy started one week before I raised my grievance. My grievance was about the redundancy process and that they were not upholding maternity rights as the proposal suggested that those in the pool (of 5) would apply competitively for two new roles created. It was new roles created by combining the other roles together. I argued that I had priority right. During the consultation they told another member of staff (who did not have enhanced protections) in that pool that they would be slotted into the new role at the end of the consultation. This was before they assessed whether the role was suitable for me. They also left my rights out of the equality impact assessment and never updated this until after the end of the consultation.

After they sought legal advice they then carried out a 'matching exercise' where I was asked to provide lots of evidence to demonstrate suitability. I believe it was suitable, they said I didn't have the experience needed. They did this on a percentage match basis. When I asked them their scoring methodology in the redundancy hearing they could not provide it, not the percentage I had been scored, only that it was 'low'. They used only half the person specification and disregarded the skills section, for which my current role was 100% match.

2. Was your role the only one made redundant or where you part of a selection pool?

Part of a select pool as above


3. What reasons were given for the redundancy situation?

It was a restructure. In the proposal they said the work of the team I led was expanding and that they were committed to delivering on all the projects. When I questioned this they just basically said they didn't need my role anymore. My work had been given out whilst on maternity leave and much of it was not returned to me when I came back.

4. Were you at any point referred for an Occupational Health assessment?

Yes I was, and the advice was to limit contact with me to aid my recovery. This wasn't really possible as I was in the middle of the restructure and was also being asked to evidence my suitability etc and attending consultation and suitability meetings. At one point I was given 1 day to provide further evidence. This was all whilst signed off sick.

5. Can you confirm your termination date?

2 March 2026



This is already going to tribunal, so there's no issues with timing. A preliminary hearing is already scheduled for next year. I'm just curious if this length for a grievance is normal. One reason I was given for the delay was that it was 'paused' tand not pushed forward with the usual urgency because I had asked for without prejudice discussions. I always knew they were going to push me out and didn't want to be dragged through it all. Sadly no offer was made, they dragged me through it, knowing I was never going to be given the role.

My role was then disestablished on 12 January and my team moved over to the other colleague. But I was still employed. This is because I didn't accept their (tiny) voluntary redundancy package. So it had to go to formal redundancy committee, which they didn't hold until the end of February. My grievance hearing was held the week before. They then said they were combining the processes. So the same panel sat for the grievance and redundancy committee. I got the outcome on the 2 March saying I was redundancy effective immediately. I appealed this in the time limit. I have chased the appeal multiple times over many weeks now. Finally I have been told it will be at the start of July but have received no invite or documentation.


There's an awful lot more to it. Name calling publicly by senior staff members, denial of reasonable adjustments etc - because I have a long-term mental health condition. Which they knew about and I told them multiple times.