Procedure for appeal against grading

Personal appeals begin from this point

If the roleholder is not satisfied with the outcome, they may appeal to a joint management-trade union panel in accordance with the procedures below. The appeal must be made in writing to the Director of Human Resources no later than 30 working days following the date of the notification by HR of the grading outcome.

Human Resources will advise the appellant in writing of the right to:

• provide additional written information; and
• appear in person; and
• be accompanied by a trade union representative or work colleague;

and to advise them of the date of the appeal hearing.

Any additional written information submitted by the appellant or by the College/Service must be sent to Human Resources no later than two weeks before the notified date of the appeal.

The appellant should notify Human Resources of the name of any person who will be accompanying them.

College/Service appeals begin from this point

The appeal panel will comprise:

• up to 3 members nominated by the University; and
• up to 3 trade union representatives employed by the University, nominated by Unison, Unite and the University and College Union.

The quorum will be two members from each side and the trade union side should comprise no more than one representative of each union.

Meetings of the appeal panel will be chaired by one of the University-side members.

Appeals will be considered on the grounds that there was an incorrect application of the grading criteria during the scoring. The appeal panel may review all the HERA elements and is not restricted to any elements identified by the appellant in their statement of appeal. As a consequence, the outcome of the appeal may result in the total HERA score for the role being adjusted upwards or downwards.

The appeal panel will seek to make decisions on the basis of consensus but, in cases of disagreement, an overall majority of the whole panel, including at least two members of the University side, is required to amend the previous evaluation. (The chair will not have a casting vote.)

The College Dean/Head of Service will nominate an appropriate manager to present the views of the employing College/Service and to answer questions of fact. The representative of the College Dean/Head of Service may be accompanied by a member of Human Resources.

At least one week prior to the date of the appeal hearing, Human Resources will circulate to the panel and the appellant:

• any documentation relied upon for the initial scoring of the role (eg the HERA questionnaire, including a job description) and structure chart (if available); and
• the HERA evaluation for each element, showing the total score; and
• any additional written information provided by the appellant and by the College/Service.

At the hearing, the panel will:

• invite the appellant (or the person accompanying them) to make an opening statement;
• ask questions of the appellant;
• invite the representative of the College Dean/Head of Service (or the person accompanying them) to respond;
• ask questions of the representative of the College Dean/Head of Service;
• invite the representative of the College Dean/Head of Service (or the person accompanying them) to make a short, closing statement;
• invite the appellant (or the person accompanying them) to make a short, closing statement.

The appellant and any person accompanying the appellant and the representative(s) of the College Dean/Head of Service shall retire while the appeal panel re-evaluate the role. The appeal panel may recall all of the above to answer further questions of fact.

Human Resources will notify the appellant of the outcome of their appeal within one week of the appeal hearing.

Where the grade changes following an appeal, the revision will be backdated to the first day of the month following receipt of the regrading submission in Human Resources.

The outcome of the appeal hearing will be final.