Afternoon all

I have been asked to attend an interview where a colleague of mine is being investigated under the grievence procedure.

Basically a disgruntled memebr of staff was resigning and in their resignation letter they made several, pretty minor allegations against my colleague. They have now completely left the business and work someplace else.

My question is about the rules around the grievance procedures. Ours make continous reference to employees, not ex-employees. Can my compnay actually use the grievance system to investigate this?

Probably, if there’s no case to answer then the investigation should find that, if there was misconduct it should still be dealt with. The ex-employee might have grounds for constructive dismissal if the complaints weren’t investigated.

There may also have been previous complaints against your colleague you are unaware of, so although the latest complaints may sound minor in the round things may be more serious.

Of course they could just be gunning for your colleague it which case I’d keep my distance.

I’m no expert but I suspect it would depend on how serious they where. If for example it is ongoing and criminal then why would they not continue to investigate regardless of whether the accuser is in or out of the business.

tell your colleague to just deny everything. The company will have a duty to investigate the claims but if it ends up being one persons word against an ex-employee it will go nowhere but the managers can box it off that it’s been dealt with and get on with bau.