Grievance appeal: what the Acas Code requires, and what it leaves to you

A grievance outcome lands, the employee says it is wrong, and someone recites a rule nobody can find: five working days to appeal, a more senior manager, a final decision. Some of that is sound practice. Almost none of it is law, and the deadline most often quoted is not in the Acas Code at all.

This article separates the three things that govern a grievance appeal in Great Britain: the statute, the Acas Code of Practice and your own written procedure. It quotes the Code where the Code speaks and says where it is silent, because the silences are where procedures go wrong. It is general information about Great Britain, not legal advice, and Northern Ireland has its own code.

An appeal stalls most often because nobody owns it. See how New Dynamics workflows route a stage to a named person with a date attached, so an appeal does not sit in an inbox for three weeks.

Is there a statutory right to appeal a grievance outcome?

No. Great Britain has no statutory grievance procedure and no Act giving a right of appeal against a grievance outcome. The procedures that once existed were abolished: section 1 of the Employment Act 2008 repeals “sections 29 to 33 and Schedules 2 to 4 (which make provision for statutory dispute resolution procedures)” of the Employment Act 2002, in force from 6 April 2009.

Two statutory duties survive at the edges. The first is the procedure itself. GOV.UK's guidance on handling an employee's grievance states: “By law, employers must set out a grievance procedure and share it in writing with all employees.” It should “explain how to appeal a grievance decision” and “set out time limits for each stage of the process”. The second is the companion, below.

So the appeal right is real, but it comes from the Code and from your own document, and GOV.UK adds that if you put the procedure in the contract, “you must follow the procedure, or the employee could bring a breach of contract claim against you”.

What the Acas Code actually says about the appeal

The Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures is issued under section 199 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and “comes into effect by order of the Secretary of State on 11 March 2015 and replaces the Code issued in 2009”. That is the version in force. It gives the grievance appeal five paragraphs, short enough to read in full.

1. Paragraph 41. “Where an employee feels that their grievance has not been satisfactorily resolved they should appeal. They should let their employer know the grounds for their appeal without unreasonable delay and in writing.”
2. Paragraph 42. “Appeals should be heard without unreasonable delay and at a time and place which should be notified to the employee in advance.”
3. Paragraph 43. “The appeal should be dealt with impartially and wherever possible by a manager who has not previously been involved in the case.”
4. Paragraph 44. “Workers have a statutory right to be accompanied at any such appeal hearing.”
5. Paragraph 45. “The outcome of the appeal should be communicated to the employee in writing without unreasonable delay.”

Two earlier paragraphs complete it. Paragraph 4 lists among the elements of fairness that “Employers should allow an employee to appeal against any formal decision made”, and paragraph 40 requires that after the first grievance meeting “The employee should be informed that they can appeal if they are not content with the action taken.” That is all of it. The Code sets no number of days, prescribes no letter, grades no appeal by seniority, and does not say how many appeals an employee gets.

Who should hear a grievance appeal

Paragraph 43 puts impartiality first and a fresh manager second: “wherever possible”, not always. Acas guidance on how to appeal a disciplinary or grievance outcome adds a requirement procedures often miss. The person handling the appeal should “be a manager who was not previously involved in deciding the outcome” and “have the authority to make the final decision”. Someone who must ask permission before changing anything is running a consultation, not an appeal.

When nobody more senior exists

Here the Code is silent. Its grievance section says nothing about small organisations, or about the case where the only available manager decided the grievance. Guidance fills the gap. Acas advises that where a previously uninvolved manager is not possible, “your employer should try and make the process as impartial as they can. For example, they could bring in an external person to carry out the appeal.” Discipline and grievances at work, the Acas guide (July 2020), is more concrete:

In small organisations, even if there is no more senior manager available, another manager should, if possible, hear the appeal. If this is not possible consider whether the owner or, in the case of a charity, the board of trustees, should hear the appeal. Whoever hears the appeal should consider it impartially.

On further stages the same guide is plain: “Large organisations may wish to allow a further appeal to a higher level of management, such as a director. However, in smaller firms the first appeal will usually mark the end of the grievance procedure.”

The right to be accompanied applies to the appeal

This part is statute. Section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 applies where a worker “is required or invited by his employer to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing” and “reasonably requests to be accompanied at the hearing”. Section 13(5) of the same Act defines a grievance hearing as “a hearing which concerns the performance of a duty by an employer in relation to a worker”. An appeal about such a grievance is still such a hearing, which is why paragraph 44 states the right without qualification. Acas confirms it in its guidance on getting ready for an appeal hearing: “By law, an employee or worker can bring a 'companion' (relevant person) with them to both disciplinary and grievance appeal hearings.”

One hard number comes from the statute, and it is often mistaken for an appeal deadline. Under section 10(5), if the chosen companion is unavailable, the time the worker proposes instead must “be reasonable” and “fall before the end of the period of five working days beginning with the first working day after the day proposed by the employer”. That is a postponement limit.

Who the companion may be and what they may do is the same at both stages. Our post on the disciplinary procedure covers the companion's role, and grievance meaning covers the steps before the appeal.

Time limits: what the Code sets, and what it does not

The Code sets no time limit for lodging a grievance appeal and none for answering one. Its only standard appears three times in five paragraphs: without unreasonable delay. The five working days figure in most handbooks is not from the Code. It is a recommendation in Acas guidance, which tells an employee to appeal “as soon as possible or within the time period that your organisation might have set in their policy”, and adds: “Acas recommends 5 working days from receiving your outcome as an appropriate amount of time.” That page was last updated on 14 August 2024. The same five days, with a 24 hour turnaround for the decision, appear in the sample small-organisation procedure in the Acas guide. Both are templates to adapt, not rules to cite.

The binding deadline is in your own document. GOV.UK's guidance for employees on appealing a grievance decision says the employer's procedure will set out “who you should submit your appeal to” and “the time limit within which an appeal must be made”. If it says five days, five days is your rule. If it says nothing, nothing is, and reasonableness is what a tribunal would weigh.

The grievance outcome letter: what it should contain

No official source prescribes a form for the employer's appeal outcome letter, and the Code requires only that the outcome is “communicated to the employee in writing without unreasonable delay”. On content, three official sources agree.

• Acas on getting the appeal outcome: give the outcome “as soon as possible in writing, including” “the reason for their decision” and “whether this is the final decision”.
• GOV.UK for employers: “After the appeal hearing, you should set out your decision in writing and state that this is the final outcome.”
• The Acas guide: tell the employee “if the appeal meeting is the final stage of the grievance procedure”, and where the grievance was about a colleague, tell that person “any aspect of the decision that affects them and the reasons for it”.

Acas publishes a grievance appeal letter template for the employee, last updated on 6 February 2025. There is no prescribed form for the employer's reply.

What it costs to get the appeal wrong

A failure to follow the Code is not unlawful by itself. The Code says so: “A failure to follow the Code does not, in itself, make a person or organisation liable to proceedings. However, employment tribunals will take the Code into account when considering relevant cases.” The consequence sits in section 207A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, inserted by the Employment Act 2008 and in force from 6 April 2009. Where the employer has failed to comply with a relevant Code and “that failure was unreasonable”, the tribunal “may, if it considers it just and equitable in all the circumstances to do so, increase any award it makes to the employee by no more than 25%”. Subsection (3) does the same in reverse where the employee has unreasonably failed to comply.

One limit is routinely left out. Section 207A(1) applies only “to proceedings before an employment tribunal relating to a claim by an employee under any of the jurisdictions listed in Schedule A2”, which lists unfair dismissal, unauthorised deductions, detriment and discrimination in work cases under the Equality Act 2010, among others. A badly handled appeal that never becomes one of those claims attracts no uplift, because there is no award to adjust. For the wider picture on disputes at work, see our HR statistics hub.

Overlaps with a disciplinary case or a tribunal claim

A disciplinary process. Paragraph 46 of the Code: “Where an employee raises a grievance during a disciplinary process the disciplinary process may be temporarily suspended in order to deal with the grievance. Where the grievance and disciplinary cases are related it may be appropriate to deal with both issues concurrently.” Note the permissive wording. Pausing is an option, not a duty, and the Code is silent on a grievance appeal landing mid disciplinary.

A tribunal claim. The appeal and the tribunal clock run independently. Acas is explicit on its page on employment tribunal time limits, last updated on 1 October 2026: “Going through grievance, disciplinary or appeal procedures does not change your time limit. If those procedures take a long time, you still need to notify Acas before your time limit runs out.” For a problem on or after 1 October 2026, “You have 6 months minus 1 day for most claims”; before that date most claims carried “3 months minus 1 day”. Notifying Acas pauses the clock “until early conciliation ends”.

So a slow appeal shelters nobody, because a claim can be presented while the appeal is open, and an employee who waits politely for the outcome can lose the claim on time. An appeal letter should never imply that the internal route suspends anything.

Must an employer keep hearing the same grievance again?

The Code does not say. It contains no provision on repeat or persistent grievances, and no official source we could open imposes a duty to rehear a matter already decided and appealed. The nearest provisions are narrower than people assume. Paragraph 4 asks that “Employers and employees should act consistently”. Paragraph 47 excludes collective grievances raised by a union representative for two or more employees, and the Acas guide deals with a “number of people” having “the same grievance at the same time”, which is a collective grievance, not one person returning to a closed case. Acas tells an employee unhappy with an outcome to “check your organisation's appeals policy for any next steps”.

So the answer lives in your own procedure. If it says the appeal decision is final, say so in the outcome letter and apply it consistently. Genuinely new evidence is a reason to look again on its merits, not a standing entitlement to a third hearing. Where the relationship is the real problem, workplace conflict and mediation beat another round of paperwork, and a decent case record lets you show the matter was already handled properly.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a statutory right to appeal a grievance outcome?

No. Great Britain has no statutory grievance procedure: the statutory dispute resolution procedures in the Employment Act 2002 were repealed by section 1 of the Employment Act 2008 from 6 April 2009. The appeal comes from the Acas Code, which lists allowing an appeal against any formal decision among the elements of fairness, and from the employer's own written procedure.

Who should hear a grievance appeal?

Paragraph 43 says the appeal should be dealt with impartially and wherever possible by a manager who has not previously been involved in the case. Acas adds that the person should also have authority to make the final decision, and suggests an external person where that is not possible.

How long does an employee have to appeal a grievance?

The Acas Code sets no deadline. It asks only that the employee appeal in writing, with grounds, without unreasonable delay. Acas separately recommends five working days from receiving the outcome, and GOV.UK says the time limit is set by the employer's own procedure.

What should a grievance appeal outcome letter say?

No official source prescribes a form. The Code requires the outcome in writing without unreasonable delay, Acas says it should include the reason for the decision and whether this is the final decision, and GOV.UK tells employers to state that it is the final outcome.

Can an employee bring someone to a grievance appeal hearing?

Yes. Section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 gives workers a statutory right to be accompanied at a grievance hearing on a reasonable request, and Acas confirms that this covers grievance appeal hearings.

Does an internal appeal extend the employment tribunal deadline?

No. Acas states that going through grievance, disciplinary or appeal procedures does not change the time limit. Notifying Acas pauses the clock until early conciliation ends, but only if that notification happens inside the original limit.

Your next step: close the three gaps in your procedure

1. Find the appeal stage in your written grievance procedure. If it does not name who the appeal goes to, who hears it when that person is involved, and how long each side has, those three gaps cause most disputes.
2. Decide now who hears appeals, and name the fallback for when the only senior manager is already involved: another manager, the owner, the trustees or an external appointment.
3. Check that whoever hears an appeal can change the outcome without asking the original decision maker, and that your outcome letter states the reason and says whether the decision is final. Add one line making clear that the appeal does not extend any external time limit.

For the policy wording and the handbook section behind all of this, read and download our employee handbook guide. The guide is free to read, and the PDF uses our short download form.

Want appeal stages that move on their own, with owners and dates recorded as you go? Book a New Dynamics demo and bring your current procedure. You can also email contact@new-dynamics.com.