The Court of Appeal (Civil Division) handed down judgment in the case of Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust v Hurst and others [2009] EWCA Civ 309 on 7th April 2009. The appeals concerned whether there had been sufficient compliance with schedule 2 of the Employment Act 2002 c. 22. The first appeal (Suffolk cases) concerned an individual and a collective grievance. The second appeal (Sandwell cases), concerned a collective and individual grievance, which both identified a breach of the Equal Pay Act 1970 c. 41, and indicated the shortfall in pay which they were entitled to recover. The judge allowed the appeal in the Suffolk cases and dismissed the appeal in the Sandwell cases. The employers appealed.

The issues in the appeals, which were approved by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) were whether: (i) each grievance was a valid grievance for the purposes of section 32 of the 2002 Act; and (ii) each grievance contained essentially the same complaint as the subsequent claim (the correlation principle). The appeals were dismissed and it was held that the purpose of the 2002 Act was to discourage the swift issue of proceedings and encourage negotiation, conciliation and settlement. Parliament had not intended to make the hurdle to access to an Employment Tribunal to be so high that a grievance notice is invalid unless it includes full particulars of the claim.