Below are the steps to take on how to complain about unfair treatment at work to your employer.

This page last updated 7.7.26.

Do you need a letter of grievance to complain about unfair treatment at work?

Are you being subjected to unfair treatment at work and want to complain about a toxic work environment?

Click here if you are being subjected to an unfair investigation at work or flawed disciplinary investigation and want to know your employee rights UK?

Click here if you have been suspended from work.

My wife Amy & I have created some new webpages for 2026 for you to look at:

• Read This First!
• 20 Hot Tips on how to write a grievance letter.
• Don’t use AI to write your grievance letter.
• Free grievance letter example for ‘work-related stress, bullying, harassment and discrimination’.
• What not to say in a grievance meeting.
• How to win a grievance appeal.

In the paragraphs below, we have outlined the steps which you should take on how to complain about unfair treatment at work to your employer. Unfair treatment creates a toxic workplace and toxic work environment. Below, we have outlined the steps you can take to write a grievance complaint letter to your employer due to a toxic work environment.

Please also see our pages on how to write a grievance letter for bullying and harassment.

Note from Sam Stone:

My wife Amy and I are employment consultants with 26 years combined experience helping employees like you.

Amy & I know firsthand the stress, anxiety, and distress which you feel, because we took our own employers to the Employment Tribunal. We built this website to help people like you to know your employee rights UK, so that when you enter the grievance procedure for unfair treatment at work, you know your employment rights UK.

You only get one chance to get your grievance letter for unfair treatment at work right, so here is your chance to do just that!

Signs of unfair treatment at work and examples of being treated unfairly at work UK:

• Being singled out.
• Being ignored.
• Being called out.
• Subjected to workplace bullying.
• Being put on a performance improvement plan.
• Being subjected to frequent 1-2-1 meetings with your manager.
• Overbearing supervisions.
• Always being called out and made an example of in front of others.
• Micromanagement.
• Being given trivial tasks to undertake.
• Not being valued.
• Not being perceived as a team player.
• Being demoted.
• Being subjected to a toxic work environment and toxic workplace.

My wife Amy & I can assist you in knowing how to complain about unfair treatment at work, and furthermore, how to write a grievance letter for unfair treatment at work. If you prefer, Amy & I can write you a custom grievance letter or have a telephone consultation with you so that you know your employee rights for unfair treatment at work UK law.

Here are the steps on how to complain about Unfair Treatment at Work – Your Employment Rights Unfair Treatment at Work UK Law:

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Under the auspices of the Equality Act 2010 you have either ‘less favourable treatment’ or ‘unfavourable treatment’. Nowhere in the Equality Act 2010 does it actually have a provision for ‘unfair treatment at work’.

To this end, if you are wanting to complain about ‘unfair treatment at work’ you will need to write your grievance letter to the UK law.

Step 1 – Unfair Treatment at Work Grievance Letter:

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Less favourable treatment is where you have been (or are being) treated ‘less favourably’ or unfairly in comparison to someone else at work. As such, you need to establish the comparator or comparators (plural).

You first have to identify who it is you have been (or are being) treated unfairly / less favourably in comparison to i.e. is it an individual or a group of individuals.

Thus, you need to identify and name the person or persons in your letter of grievance for unfair treatment at work i.e., who you believe you have been (or are being) treated unfairly / less favourably in comparison to. 

Step 2 – Unfair Treatment at Work Grievance Letter:

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You have to outline within your letter of grievance for unfair treatment at work the specific grounds and reasons why you believe you have been (or are being) treated unfairly / less favourably in comparison to i.e., your comparators.

This is really important because you need to establish the ‘motivation’ and the ‘reason why’ behind the unfair treatment /  less favourable treatment.

Step 3 – Unfair Treatment at Work Grievance Letter:

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When establishing the motivation for the unfair treatment / less favourable treatment, you need to establish whether the unfair treatment / less favourable treatment is ‘because of’ a protected characteristic such as your race, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion etc,.

If you believe the motivation behind the unfair treatment at work is because of a protected characteristic such as your sex, race, or disability, then you need to say so within your letter of grievance to your employer. This is very important as potentially you are raising a grievance for ‘discrimination’.

Step 4 – Unfair Treatment at Work Grievance Letter:

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You need to outline a timeframe in your letter of grievance of how long the unfair treatment / less favourable treatment has been going on for.

As such, if the unfair treatment / less favourable treatment has been going on for many months or even a year or so, then you need to outline this in your letter of grievance to your employer to evidence a ‘course of conduct’.

In the authority of Iqbal v Dean Manson Solicitors the Court of Appeal outlined that it is the ‘course of conduct’ rather than the individual incidents of bullying and harassment, which is important:

“The Act is concerned with courses of conduct which amount to harassment, rather than with individual instances of harassment. Of course, it is the individual instances which will make up the course of conduct, but it still remains the position that it is the course of conduct which has to have the quality of amounting to harassment, rather than individual instance of conduct.”

Step 5 – Unfair Treatment at Work Grievance Letter:

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You need to establish examples of the unfair treatment / less favourable treatment within your letter of grievance.

You need to outline within your grievance letter for unfair treatment at work, a chronological order of the dates when your employer or line manager has subjected you to unfair treatment at work.

Step 6 – Unfair Treatment at Work Grievance Letter:

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You need to put your employer on the hook and ask the HR Department to explain the specific grounds and reasons why you have been subjected to unfair treatment / less favourably in comparison to your comparator/s.

Step 7 – Example Letter of Grievance for Unfair Treatment at Work:

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 Dear Sirs,

 I am raising a letter of grievance for unfair treatment / less favourable treatment at work. It is my reasonable belief that I have been subjected to unfair treatment / less favourable treatment in comparison to Dave Smith & Andy Jones. I believe the unfair treatment / less favourable treatment is because of my disability. My employer is palpably aware that I suffer from anxiety and depression, which has a substantial adverse effect on my day to day activities, and furthermore, which impacts upon my cognitive abilities, thought processes and memory function. The unfair treatment / less favourable treatment has occurred over the last three months. On 5.6.24 I was informed by my line manager Michael Hartley that my pay would be commensurate with my output. This applies a discriminatory effect on protected grounds of disability. For the avoidance of doubt, by reason that my disability effects my cognitive abilities (especially when under excessive pressure and duress) I am unable to produce the same output of work in comparison to Dave Smith & Andy Jones. My employer should have articulated this fact and made reasonable adjustments. Thus, it is my position that my employer has discriminated against me, and furthermore, is continuing to discriminate against me by treating me less favourably in comparison to Dave Smith & Andy Jones. To this end, I require to know the following:

•  Why has my anxiety and depression not been taken into consideration germane to my performance and output?
  
• How do you say my performance and output would not be affected by my anxiety-related disorder and depression?
  
• How do you say reducing my pay does not amount to less favourable treatment in comparison to Dave Smith & Andy Jones?
• How do you say docking my pay does not apply a discriminatory effect in comparison to Dave Smith & Andy Jones?
• What steps are the Company going to take to remedy the situation?

The above grievance letter example for unfair treatment at work establishes the facts, and provides information. However, Amy & I have created a free grievance letter example which you can use to raise grievances for (i) work-related stress (ii) bullying and harassment (iii) discrimination.

Unfavourable Treatment:

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Unlike less favourable treatment as outlined above, unfavourable treatment is predominately used in cases where you do not need a comparator.

Put shortly, all you have to establish in your letter of grievance is that your employer or line manager has treated you ‘unfavourably’.

Unfavourable treatment would normally be used in only two cases i.e. either disability or pregnancy discrimination. If you need to raise a grievance for ‘unfavourably treatment’ for pregnancy, then please visit the page on our web site headed under Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination.

The only other time you can use ‘unfavourable treatment’ is where your employer (or one of its employees such as your line manager) has (or is) treating you unfavourably because of a mental or physical impairment;

Example of Unfair Treatment at Work Grievance Letter Sample:

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What most of our clients don’t realise, is that if you suffer from a medical condition such as anxiety or depression, or have some other mental or physical impairment such as asthma, diabetes, hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia, IBS, cancer, a bad back, migraines, heavy menstrual cycles etc., then you could very possibly fall under the auspices of the Equality Act 2010 as having a ‘disability’. For the avoidance of doubt, cancer and HIV are a disability on diagnosis.

When I was raising a grievance against my employer back in 2005, I did not know that my asthma was classed as a disability. I never thought of myself as being ‘disabled’. However, the Equality Act 2010 covers impairments as well as disabilities. In this regard, I draw your attention to the authority of Ministry of Defence v Hay (2008), whereas Mr Justice Langstaff in the Employment Appeal Tribunal reminds us that the concept of disability in the Equality Act is not a medical model, but a ‘functional’ model because the definition focuses on ‘impairment’. An ‘impairment’ is not the same as a ‘disability’. It is directed towards what a claimant cannot, or can no longer do at a practical level. Thus, a constellation of symptoms which lasted over 12 months, even though the precise disability on which the claim was based according to expert evidence would have lasted less than 12 months, can be regarded as a combination of impairments with different effects, to different extents, over periods of time which overlapped and which constitutes a qualifying disability.

To put the above into plain English, if you have a mental or physical impairment (say anxiety and/or depression) then you may well be covered under the auspices of The Equality Act 2010. To this end, you may want to consider contacting us to help you write your letter of grievance because if we can bring your letter of grievance under the Equality Act, then it gives your grievance letter real teeth. It also gives you leverage against your employer especially if your employer knows of your mental / physical impairment, but has not put in place the reasonable adjustments, which YOU need.

Thus, when raising a grievance letter for unfavourable treatment at work you do not need a comparator. All you have to establish in your grievance letter is that your employer or line manager has treated you (or is treating you) unfavourably ‘because of’ your impairment or disability.

This makes it much easier, especially if you want to later lodge a claim in the Employment Tribunal. Winning a case in the Tribunal for unfavourable treatment is a lot easier than having to explain to the Employment Tribunal how you have been treated ‘less favourably’ in comparison to a non-disabled person, which requires a rather complicated objective test.

Therefore, the grievance letter example which is outlined above could be amended to read something like this –

Grievance Letter Example Unfavourable Treatment at Work:

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Dear Sirs,

I am raising a letter of grievance for unfavourable treatment at work. It is my reasonable and genuine belief that I have been subjected to unfavourable treatment because of something arising in consequence of my anxiety and depression. I believe the unfavourable treatment is because of my mental health impairments. My employer is palpably aware that I suffer from anxiety and depression, which impairments have a substantial adverse effect on my day to day activities, and furthermore, which impacts upon my cognitive abilities. The unfavourable treatment has occurred over the last three months. On 5.6.24 I was informed by my line manager Michael Hartley that my pay would be commensurate with my output. This applies a discriminatory effect. For the avoidance of doubt, by reason that my anxiety and depression effects my cognitive abilities (especially when under excessive pressure and duress) I am unable to produce the same output of work in comparison to my workplace colleagues. My employer should have articulated this fact. Thus, it is my position that my employer has discriminated against me, and furthermore, is continuing to discriminate against me by treating me unfavourably by reducing my rate of pay commensurate with my output at work. To this end, I require to know the following:

• Why have my mental health impairments not been taken into consideration germane to both my performance and output?
• How do you say my performance and output would not be affected because of my anxiety-related disorder and depression?
• How do you say reducing my pay does not amount to unfavourable treatment?
• I require to know how you say docking my pay does not apply a discriminatory effect?
• What steps are the Company going to take to remedy the situation?

Conclusions:

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If you can’t face this process alone and would like to discuss your workplace problems with us, reach out to us. Sometimes, just talking through your employment issues can give you a new perspective on what to do, and furthermore, how to go about doing it. We can write your grievance letter for you. We can hold your hand throughout the entire grievance process from beginning to end. We can assist you in avoiding the common mistakes which we see employees make when going through the grievance process with their employer. You don’t have to be alone in this process. Reach out to us on 07775943414 or email us at myrightsuk@protonmail.com

We work 7 days a week, 9-5 UK time, because we know all too well that your employment problems don’t just end on a Friday afternoon! Go on, pick up the phone and call us! 

We can write you a custom grievance letter or have a telephone consultation with you if you need help on any of the following matters:

• grievance letter for bullying and harassment
• toxic working environment
• grievance letter against a coworker
• constructive unfair dismissal
• work-related stress
• stress at work employee rights UK
• grievance for work-related stress
• Sickness absence meeting
• what not to say to occupational health
• resignation letter
• raise a grievance at work.
• unfair treatment at work
• performance improvement plan
• how to beat a disciplinary hearing
• disciplinary workplace investigation.
• suspended from work
• blow the whistle
• victimisation at work UK
• workplace investigation
• reasonable adjustments equality act 2010.
• pregnancy and maternity discrimination
• sexual harassment in the workplace.
• disability discrimination
• what not to say at a grievance meeting

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Reach out to Sam & Amy at: myrightsuk@protonmail.com or call during working hours 9-5 on 07775943414.

Sam and Amy charge £35 for an initial telephone consultation up to one hour, and £50 an hour thereafter.