Law digest: 14 August 2008

Cannop v Highland Council [2008] IRLR 634, [2008] CSIH 38

To satisfy the statutory grievance procedure there has to be some correlation between the grievance relied on and the claim submitted; the question is whether or not the underlying the claim presented to the tribunal is essentially the same grievance as was earlier communicated. The grievance document need not necessarily be read in isolation: there may have been earlier communications with the employer which provide a context in which the grievance document falls to be interpreted. Events subsequent to the communication of the grievance document may illuminate the nature and scope of the grievance. Further, there may be some circumstances in which the employee does not have access to the full facts; in such circumstances it may be sufficient to frame a grievance statement based on a suspicion or set of suspicions that certain facts exist.