John, Connor and Toby are the ones that take care of ...

[tufguy]

Can we use 'that' for more than one person as well like we do for a single person? For example "John is the one that takes care of the grievance department".

Can we also say "John, Connor and Toby are the ones 'that' take care of the grievance department"?

 

[emsr2d2]

I would use "who", not "that", in both sentences.

 

[Tarheel]

@tufguy Is that Indian English (take care of the grievance department)?

 

[jutfrank]

Can we use 'that' for more than one person

Yes.

 

[Flask]

Yes.

Indeed, the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) returns nearly thirty-seven thousand hits for "people that."

 

[Flask]

Can we use 'that' for more than one person as well like we do for a single person?

Since tufguy's question as stated applies to the word that in any context, not just in relative clauses, a footnote is needed. It is only when that is being used instead of who in a relative clause that that can be used for more than one person. Outside of relative clauses, that cannot be used for more than one person. Thus, we can ask, Who is that?, but not Who are that? We can say, That person is nice, This person is nice, These people are nice, and Those people are nice, but not That people are nice.

 

[tedmc]

"Is/are the ones" is redundant."
"Grievance department" is new to me. It's normally "complaints department".

 

[Tarheel]

Can we also say "John, Connor and Toby are the ones 'that' take care of the grievance department"?

Some of us are perfectly fine with "that" there. However, I might say:

John is in charge of the complaint department.

Or:

John is in charge of customer service. (More likely).

 

[tufguy]

@tufguy Is that Indian English (take care of the grievance department)?

No.

 

[emsr2d2]

@tufguy Is that Indian English (take care of the grievance department)?

No.

Well, it's not British English either. As the others have suggested, use something like "is in charge of/is head of the complaints department".

 

[Tarheel]

I would be at least mildly surprised if a business had a complaint department. These days if you have a complaint you have to take it to customer service. (American English.)