Glossary

The words, defined.

Terms that come up in disciplinaries, grievances, flexible working requests and appeals, and in the architecture that keeps them confidential.

Grievance: A concern, problem or complaint an employee raises with their employer. Once raised, the employer investigates it and reaches a reasoned outcome, which the employee can usually appeal.
Disciplinary procedure: The process an employer follows where an employee’s conduct or performance may warrant formal action. It normally involves an investigation, a written invitation setting out the allegations, a meeting at which the employee can respond, an outcome, and a right of appeal.
Appeal: A rehearing or review requested by an employee who disagrees with an outcome. The appeal is answered on the grounds the employee actually raised, and is usually heard by someone not involved in the original decision.
Capability procedure: The process used where an employee is not meeting the standard required, usually through ability or health rather than choice. It turns on whether the standard was clear, the shortfall was explained, support was offered, and there was a fair chance to improve.
Investigation plan: A written plan setting out the issues to examine, the people to interview, and the documents to gather before anyone reaches a decision. Writing it down is what makes the investigation reviewable later.
Working papers: The documents produced as a procedure runs: the investigation plan, question scripts, notes, the outcome document and the letter to the employee. In a dispute these are the record, and they have to speak for themselves.
Defensible record: A file that lets a sceptical reader follow what happened and why: each issue addressed in turn, the evidence considered, the finding and its reason, the test applied, and the right of appeal. Gaps are visible rather than hidden.
Procedural fairness: Whether a process was run fairly, separate from whether the conclusion was right. It covers matters such as telling someone what is alleged, giving them a real chance to respond, and having the decision taken by someone who has not prejudged it.
Prejudgement: Treating the answer as settled before the process has run: wording an invitation as though an allegation is proved, or gathering only evidence that supports one view. It is one of the most common reasons an otherwise sound outcome fails on review.
Mitigation: Circumstances an employee puts forward that reduce the seriousness of what they did or the sanction that should follow. Recording what mitigation was raised and how it was weighed is part of a complete outcome.
Sanction: The action an employer takes following a disciplinary finding, such as a warning or dismissal. What is available depends on the employer’s own policy.
Special-category data: Personal data given extra protection under UK GDPR, including health, racial or ethnic origin, religious belief, sexual orientation and trade union membership. Grievances and disciplinaries routinely involve it.
Article 9 condition: The additional legal condition an organisation must satisfy to process special-category data, on top of a lawful basis. Which condition applies to a given process is a question for the organisation’s DPO or counsel.
DPIA: A Data Protection Impact Assessment: a written assessment of the risks a processing activity poses to people, and the measures taken to reduce them. Often expected where special-category data is processed at scale or in sensitive situations.
Zero access: A design in which the supplier cannot read customer content, because the architecture never puts that content within reach. Stronger than a confidentiality policy, which depends on staff following it. In Jesmond it means content is encrypted on the user’s device under a key the supplier never holds.
Passkey: The fingerprint, face or PIN sign-in built into modern phones and laptops, replacing a password. In Jesmond a passkey also derives the key that encrypts case content, so only that person on their own enrolled devices can unlock it.
Key wrapping: Encrypting a key so that only a specific person can open it. Each authorised holder gets their own wrapped copy; adding a holder means an existing one unwraps and re-wraps it for them, so nobody can grant themselves access.
Zero Data Retention: An agreement under which the AI provider keeps neither the request nor the response after processing it. Jesmond only permits models that support it.
Tenant isolation: Keeping one customer’s data separate from another’s. In Jesmond this is enforced below the application by the database itself, and by giving each organisation its own storage and its own key, rather than by code remembering to filter.
On-device processing: Handling content in the user’s own browser or machine rather than on the supplier’s servers. In Jesmond, documents are read on the device and encrypted there; the browser signs and sends the model request itself, so the content does not pass through the supplier’s application.
Ciphertext: Data that has been encrypted, and is unreadable without the key. Jesmond stores drafts and audit data as ciphertext, with the keys held by the customer’s own key-holders.
Control plane: The part of a system that manages accounts, permissions and workflow state, as distinct from the content itself. Jesmond’s control plane knows which case is at which step; it does not know what the case is about.

See Jesmond on your own procedures.

A short, guided walkthrough — no case content leaves your device.

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