In reply to Laura Fazackarley:

It used to be four months, but we changed it in July to three. He resigned the 16th October though, before the three months (24th October) so we are fine about not paying, is that correct? Thanks is advance Laura!

In reply to Valentina:

There's no grievance to answer, Valentina, because your aggrieved is no longer an employee. It doesn't matter when he raised the grievance. Your company owes no obligation to him to resolve the grievance.

As a result, this boils down to just one thing: he says you owe him money and you have to decide whether or not you agree.

If you agree, send him the money.

If you disagree, send him nothing. He will have to take you to court to demonstrate a legal entitlement to that money (at his expense). You can then decide whether or not you want to fight it or settle. But odds are he won't, as the entitlement is highly debatable.

In reply to Robey:

Thanks Robey, much appreciated.

In reply to Robey:

Ignore me...edited this post as I think the policy wording might exclude people who resign - wasn't reading for comprehension!

The resignation date of the employee who made the referral is not something to rely on - they are still in your employment until the end of the notice period so the effective date for any qualification under your policy is their leaving date in November.

If they qualified for the bonus in October because the candidate they referred had reached the right amount of service, I would argue that it should have been paid to the referring employee in their final salary - the fact they happen to be working their notice is a side issue.

If your policy excludes payment to someone working their notice, then fine - they don't qualify but given the information here, you can't exclude them just because they resigned in October.

You still got a successful hire from this person under your policy.

In reply to Ray:

Jumping on the bandwagon here Ray

I too would be interested to understand where things stand with an ex-employee submitting a grievance. From my limited knowledge I understand that grievance process is for employees but I suspect that it would probably be wise for employers to look at any complaint by an ex employee to check its credence and also ensure that there is nothing where the company is at risk lest the issue rear its head and get taken to ET - is that correct?

So in this case, amending that policy to reflect the 3 months that was revised as per July might be a start because the wording has caused confusion I expect

When I was in a similar situation this is what I did and had to speak to ex employee and then his support worker who was able to explain the response to the individual.

This was several years ago and I must confess that, I was not made aware that ex-employees cant submit grievances

In reply to Cass Clothier:

Hi Cass - some simple guidelines I try to keep in mind to avoid confusing myself :-)

Grievance procedures are for employees and there are no legal obligations to follow through with an existing grievance after employment ends. Even if the Company continues an investigation there is no obligation to communicate the results to the ex-employee.

That dosn't mean that the elements mentioned in a grievance should be disregarded. If the Company feels that the underlying issue merits investigation, then it should investigate - but outside the grievance procedure reserved for employees. If action is called for, then that is not part of the grievance procedure but probably can be classified as an "internal audit" investigating a problem that has been flagged by an ex-employee prior to their departure.

If the person wants to pursue a claim against the company, that can now only happen outside the grievance procedure and has become a question of litigation, not grievance. Litigation can be resolved either amicably or through the courts and tribunals.

In reply to Ray:

Thanks Ray

This is very clear - Much appreciated

In reply to Ray:

To expand slightly on Ray's explanation, this case is an excellent example of how a grievance might progress after an employee has left:

The company may review its wording and procedure for making good on its referral bonus scheme as a consequence of this grievance, but that doesn't oblige it to make good towards this particular ex-employee.