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members, the communities we serve and intervention by a suitably trained supervisor timescales to adhere to. However, there are
continue to attract good applicants, the or HR advisor could stop this; just as taking no winners at Employment Tribunals. The
Force must deal with workplace disputes advice from HR if a supervisor is unsure of single lesson to be learnt from tribunal cases
fairly, timely and confidentially,” he explains, any process or requirement.” is that complaints are better resolved early.
“The Force needs to instil confidence in But he adds: “First and foremost, I really By asking an Employment Tribunal to
supervisors that they can, and should, think officers need to give serious thought to determine a workplace dispute a Force will
confront inappropriate behaviour but can whether they can seek to resolve an issue have failed its workforce. The Force admitting
also resolve workplace disputes at the themselves. I would encourage an officer to if things have gone wrong goes a long way to
earliest opportunity.” identify at an early stage what they want in rebuilding working relationships within the
Cliff advises officers to familiarise order to obtain a practical and achievable Force and repairing the personal lives of
themselves with the Force grievance policy. resolution to the problem, if not, and if they officers involved.
The Force policy documents detail what feel they need to submit a grievance, I would “Going forward, we are currently using a
should be followed and this is always a good encourage all Federation members to speak new system that will allow us to now record
starting point for any individual concerned to a Federation representative before grievance matters directly on a members’
about their treatment or considering submitting any paperwork and talk through database. This will allow the Federation to
submitting a grievance. The most often the process because it is not for the faint- monitor and support members better.
referred to policy documents are the hearted. Additionally, there is a regular change of
Grievance, Dignity at Work and “We can properly guide and advise them workplace Federation representatives, but
Whistleblowing Policies. All can be readily but also make sure that we help protect planning more in-depth and regular training
found on the Force Intranet system via the their position should it be necessary to take for equality and employment law is top of
‘policy portal’ link or via the ‘MY SERVICE’ legal action, an area where there are strict our list.”
App.
“With regular and current training, The Force needs to instil confidence in
supervisors would be better equipped to “
handle some of the incidents that end up supervisors that they can, and should, confront
being subjected to grievances and could
prevent issues from escalating and causing inappropriate behaviour but can also resolve
so much extra work and anxiety in the first
place,” says Cliff.
“We are sometimes finding that second workplace disputes at the earliest
line managers are getting involved
unnecessarily and the whole thing is just opportunity.
snowballing out of control. An early “

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