Forum - I have put in a grievance and it has taken 4 months to get a reply. What do I do?

I have put in a grievance and it has taken 4 months to get a reply. What do I do?

Fri, 16/10/2009 - 11:37 — garybevan

I was asked to give a statement as a witness to a bullying and harassment case. I was told that it was confidential but would it be OK to put my name on the investigating notes to help him. I agreed. In my notes I stated that I felt procedure had not been followed by the first defendant and one other who had been involved. Unbeknown to me the manager then decided to take out a disciplinary case against the other man, using my statement for the original case as evidence. He then decided to hand out the the notes, with my name on them, to the defendants.

I received some aggressive and hostile actions from the two people concerned. So I confronted the manager and asked if he had handed the notes out because of the hostility I was sensing. He, in front of a witness, said categorically "no".

The next day my immediate manager came to me and said to be careful as the two defendants had copies of my statement and were showing it around to work colleagues. My manager told me to watch my back.

This was 4 month ago. I took out a grievance against the manager and have heard nothing since. I have been off work on the advice of my doctor as my senior manager advised me that he could not guarantee my safety at work.

Now, our grievance policy states that the grievance procedure should take no more than 28 days. I confronted the management with this and they stated that they were too busy and people had been on holiday. They also admitted that they thought it would "go away".

As I am a a man of pride, I have been looking around the job market and applied for jobs. Now I have been offered one, its a lot less money but i see no other option.

My question is: Do I have reasonable claims for constructive dismissal? My manager believes I will not go back to work for this company and again he sees no outcome.
Thank you for any advice that you can give.