Recent EAT decisions have shown that employment tribunals should not be too strict when they apply the post-October 2004 rules which require (amongst other things) an employee to raise a "statutory grievance" before bringing a constructive unfair dismissal claim. The aim of these rules is to encourage "out of court settlements" but if they are interpreted too strictly they will be counter-productive.
This case is another example of the EATaccepting that an informal letter can be sufficient to comply with the statutory grievance requirements.