An employee used AI to write his grievance: How do I Handle it?
Published on: 21/01/2026
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Jack Balmer Director, Tughans LLP
Jack Balmer Director, Tughans LLP
Jack balmer 2

Jack is a director in the employment team at Tughans LLP and supports clients on all aspects of employment law.

Much of his work involves:

Restructuring, redundancy and TUPE processes.
Conduct and performance management.
Employee exits and pre-termination negotiations.
Post-termination restrictions and enforcement.
HR support, employment contracts and policies.
Workplace data privacy, including monitoring, background checks and subject access requests.

Jack regularly represents clients in the courts and tribunals, often in complex and high value claims. He has appeared in the tribunals, county courts and Court of Appeal.

Jack is qualified to practice in both Northern Ireland and England & Wales and has particular expertise advising UK-wide and multinational employers operating in Northern Ireland.

His recent experience includes:

  • Representing a public sector body in successful resolution of a high value claim for unfair dismissal, disability, sex and religious belief / political opinion discrimination.
  • Representing a large employer in successful mediation of a high-value equal pay, sex discrimination and unfair dismissal claim.
  • Advising numerous multinational technology businesses on all aspects of UK / NI employment law.
  • Supporting an industrial manufacturer with a post-TUPE transfer restructuring exercise across sites in NI and GB.


Jack is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association and Employment Lawyers Group NI and regularly contributes to Legal Island.

For January 2026, we have asked the employment team at Tughans LLP to provide practical answers to unusual, sensitive or complex work-related queries. We call this feature “How do I handle it?”

The articles are aimed at HR professionals and other managers who may need to deal, from time to time, with the less commonplace disputes at work; issues that may, if handled incorrectly, lead to claims for discrimination, constructive dismissal or some other serious difficulty. 

This month’s problem concerns:

An employee has used AI to write his grievance. It is extremely long, overly complex and contains a number of demands for further action and compensation. It will take considerable time for us fully investigate and address. How should we

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 21/01/2026