There is no specific legal requirement to provide an employee with a statement made about him/her in a grievance raised by another employee. The LRA Code of Practice on Grievances sets out clear guidance for employers on how to deal with grievances, and employers should be familiar with this.

However, it is important to consider that under the GDPR and DPA 2018, employees have increased rights, one of which is the right to access personal information held about them, via a subject access request. Therefore an employee could request copies of any grievances about them and/or grievances which may refer to them.

In accordance with the ICO’s Subject Access Code of Conduct, an employer can refuse to disclose this information if it would enable a third party to be identified, unless:

(a)     the third party has consented; or

(b)   it is reasonable in all circumstances to comply with the request.

However, an employer should not automatically refuse to disclose and should check with the other employee to see if they consent to its disclosure. An employer could also consider disclosing the documentation in redacted form with information blanked out that does not relate to the employee making the request.

With the recent implementation of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, employers must ensure that data protection is taken very seriously due to the hefty fines which could be levied against them by the ICO. Although data subjects have enhanced rights under GDPR to obtain personal data held about them, disclosure of this data should not cause prejudice or harm another employee. Therefore, if an employer, on balance, decides to disclose a statement which contains third party data, they should ensure that this data is redacted.