Grievance Handling System

Hi,

I have to design a Grievance Handling Format to be circulated on an all India basis from our Head Office. Please help me by forwarding some designed formats if possible.

Warm Regards,
Swastik

Swastik73:

In response to your inquiry re: grievance procedure/dispute resolution, I offer the following:

"All disputes, complaints or grievances arising out of the terms and conditions of employment, or recognized working procedures, or written, negotiated agreements must be presented through this procedure. The employee(s) shall continue to work as directed by management pending the final disposition of the issue."

"Prior to any formal grievance, the employee must discuss the issue with his/her immediate supervisor within three (3) working days after the date of occurrence, or three (3) working days after the date which the affected employee(s) could reasonably been made aware of the issue giving rise to the dispute or complaint."

"If not resolved by the immediate supervisor within three (3) working days, the employee(s) may submit a formal grievance, in writing, to Step 1 no later than three (3) working days."

STEP !: A written grievance may be submitted by the grievant to the immediate supervisor, as set forth above. The employee may request a union representative accompany him/her to the discussion, which will be held as soon as practicable, but not more than three (3) working days after the submission of the grievance. The supervisor shall provide a written answer to the employee within three (3) working days after the meeting. If the issue is not resolved, the employee(s) and/or Union may appeal to Step 2, within three (3) working days.

STEP 2: A meeting between the employee, union representative, the Department head and the supervisor shall be held upon receipt of the appeal, or within three (3) working days thereof. The Department Head shall provide a written response to the union representative within three (3) working days of the meeting. If no settlement is reached, to be timely, the union must appeal to Step 3 within five (5) working days.

STEP 3: A meeting between the General Manager, Department Head, Human Resource Representative, the District Union Representative, and two (2) other local Union officials (if a discipline case one [1] local union official may be displaced by the grievant) shall be arranged within five (5) working days of receipt of the Union's appeal from Step 2. The meeting date will be established as soon as possible, but no later than twenty (20) working days from the receipt of the appeal, except where circumstances warrant an extension. Such extension shall not extend for more than five (5) working days.

The General Manager, or his designate shall render a decision, in writing, to the District Union Representative no later than five (5) working days. If the matter is not resolved, the Union may submit the matter to ARBITRATION within ten (10) working days of receipt of Management's STEP 3 answer.


ARBITRATION: Each party shall submit a list of five (5) names to the other. From the Ten (10) names presented, one (1) should be selected as the impartial arbitrator. If no one is acceptable, the union shall submit three (3) names; the company shall submit two (2) names resulting in a list of five (5) names. (In subsequent cases, the arrangement will be reversed.) The party submitting the most names will be the first to eliminate one name, the other party will follow and the sequence will continue until only one name is left.

(In the US a list of qualified arbitrators may be obtained from the American Arbitration Association [AAA], the Federal Medication and Conciliation Service [FMCS], or the National Academy of Arbitrators [NAA]. Usually, they are attorneys or professors who have developed a reputation as fair, impartial and unbiased.)

The parties agree that the sole remaining name shall be the arbitrator for this case only. The parties further agree that the decision rendered will be final and binding on all parties, i.e. Management, Union, grievant and employees. The expenses of the arbitration, including the arbitrator's fee shall be [borne equally by the parties OR paid by the losing party]

The arbitrator will have no authority to add to, delete from, or amend any term/condition of employment, or recognized working procedures, or written, negotiated agreements.

Post hearing briefs will not be filed unless requested by the arbitrator, or at the request of either party.

The arbitrator's decision may be oral (bench decision) or written. If written, it shall be delivered to the parties simultaneously no later than thirty (30) working days form the close of the hearing.

__________________
Bill Kuzmin
PALADIN HUMAN RESOURCE CONSULTING

Swastik73:
As an alternative to the Grievance Procedure I submitted, some Companies (usually without unions) have established a "Peer Review" process.

Under this scheme, selected employees (usually 3) are teamed with selected management (2) to hear employee complaints. At the end of the hearing the "judges" vote by secret ballot ("complaint is upheld; complaint is denied"). Counting of ballots is stopped when a majority is reached and all ballots are destroyed.

I say "selected" because a "pool" of employee and management personnel must be established. From the workforce volunteers (employees and management) have the opportunity to express their interest by "signing up". Candidates for training are selected on the basis of their reputation - fair, objective, incorruptible, and open-minded - and overall record.

The next step is to train the "selectees" as to the duty and scope of their responsibility. To judge the case on the facts and evidence presented by both sides;Not to be intimidated by management or coerced by employee(s); Be willing to question witnesses, respectfully, to gain further insight and clarification of their statements as well as to assess credibility; To render a fair decision, based solely on "just cause" and not on personal or emotional considerations, and to recommend a just penalty for the offender.

In the beginning, Management will have some doubts as to the overall impact of such a Review procedure on its authority to "run the business". In some cases, an argument directed at "empowerment of employees", "employees as strategic business partners", or (in the US, usually involving discrimination cases) "a cheap prelude to determining the overall case prior to litigation" is sufficient for management to take a "try and see" appoach.

In other cases, Management has been so protective of their position so as to be reluctant to release any power to the employees. In such cases a major "selling effort" will be required to calm Management fears that the "wolves have taken over the chicken house".

In either case, I would therefore recommend that initially "panels" be equally represented (3 & 3). But as time goes on, and the Review system becomes more accepted (the results will speak for themselves), management will recognize that such a scheme is in the best interests of the Company as well as the employee, and feel more comfortable with 3/2 panels.

__________________
Bill Kuzmin
PALADIN HUMAN RESOURCE CONSULTING

Bill,

Thanks for your reply, but do you feel that one generalised format can be of any help in redressal and speedy disposal of grievances.

Warm Regards,
SC

SC:

Yes.

Persons with complaints, concerns, grievances want a swift review and resolution of the problem by management. Such quick response is beneficial to the employee, Management and the organization.

The employee because (s)he knows that the issue has been addressed in a timely, fair and consistent manner, even though they may not like the resultant answer.

Management can concentrate fully on running the business without distractions.

The organization runs more efficiently since everyone knows that the issue has been resolved, one way or the other, and the employees can apply their efforts to their responsibilities.

The "3 Step" procedure encompasses a progressive face to face review of the issue by sequentially higher levels of Management and Labor. The issues become clearer as the parties move away from emotion and toward logic. (This is the method most commonly used in the US.)

Of course, this presumes that the parties actually want to resolve the grievance in a manner beneficial to both. If there is a hidden agenda, wherein one party seeks to come out ahead, the issue usually finds its way to arbitration.

In the "Peer Review" procedure, generally reserved for more sophisticated organizations, there is only one "step" involving employees and management who have no direct interest in the dispute and who can review the issue and attendant facts without bias.

__________________
Bill Kuzmin
PALADIN HUMAN RESOURCE CONSULTING

do anyone have a format for framing a questionnaire for employee grievance handling procedure...... help me out.



thanks,
revathi

Dear Swastik,

I don't have a readiy to use designed format for grievance handling however iam posting a guideline for creating your own grievance handling policy. I hope this would be of help to you.

Organisations need to have well-written grievance procedures in place that encourage employees to raise their complaints without fear of reprisal. Further, they need to ensure that when grievances are raised they are handled effectively and sensitively. It should be realised that it takes some courage on part of the employees to ‘raise their head above the parapet and make a compliant’. The reception that employees receive when they have made a stand is crucial to the maintenance of a healthy employment relationship and employee relations.

Employees become concerned or worried about all sorts of issues, some are work related and others are of a more personal nature but may impact on their work situation. Issues may concern individual workers or affect group of workers leading to individual or collective grievances.

When employees voice these concerns to managers, in order to seek some sort of redress, they are initially classified as complaints. Good day-to day management should ensure that the majority of such matters are resolved quickly and to the satisfaction of all parties. It is not, however, always possible to find quick and easy solutions to employees complaints.

Iit is a good practice to separate grievance and disciplinary procedures, as their aims are very different. Appeals against disciplinary decisions should be channelled through the disciplinary appeals procedure, not the grievance procedure. Thet decisions on the scope of grievance procedure need to be made at the design stage and should depend on the size, nature and culture of the organization as well as how sophisticated its existing procedures are.

It is obvious that fair and efficient handling of complaints and grievances in the workplace can significantly contribute to good employee relation. This can be achieved through good management practices but it is preferable to adopt a formal written policy and procedure, to ensure consistency and a co-ordinated approach. Another benefit is that should things go wrong, and a poorly handled grievance leads to legal intervention the organisation will have a better defence if it can be shown that a comprehensive grievance procedure was in place and was correctly utilised.

The existence of formal grievance procedures should encourage employees to raise concerns without fear of reprisal, provide a fair and quick way of dealing with complaints, prevent minor disagreements developing into more serious disputes and help to build an organisational climate based on openness and trust.

It is important that a grievance procedure should not be tokenist in nature. It is crucial as to how the grievance procedure is perceived and applied for it to be successful. It is vitally important for the procedure to have credibility. All parties need to be satisfied that it is both fair in conception and application. It certainly should not be seen as a device for simply going through the motions. If a grievance is raised then it is crucial that all parties have a desire to ensure that there is a fair hearing of the complaint and that, ultimately, justice is done.

A good practice dictates that procedure should be:

• set down in writing

• aimed at settling matters as closely as possible to the point of origin

• equitable in the way in which all workers are treated

• simple to understand

• rapid in their operation to ensure that grievances are processed in a timely manner.

Further the procedure should ensure that, if a grievance is not settled at the informal or the first formal stage, workers should have the right to have their grievances heard at further levels, i.e. the right to appeal should be built into each stage.

The number of stages contained in the procedure will depend on the size and nature of the organisation, the management structure and the availability of resources. In the informal stage the grievance is discussed informally with the immediate manager. If the matter is not resolved the grievance is taken to the next stage and so on. In each stage a more senior manager handles the issue; the last stage being handled by the managing director or his authorised deputy or by a grievance committee.

A good grievance procedure should outline:

• how and with whom to raise the issue
• whom next to apply if not satisfied
• time limits to each stage
• the right to be represented

Further the grievance procedure should provide for proceedings and records to be kept confidential. The organisation must keep accurate records detailing the nature of the grievance, the management response and the reason behind it, as well as any action taken. The managers handling the grievance should be open minded and impartial in their thoughts and actions and should be trained in grievance handling. It will be a good practice that another management representative who can act as a witness and/or a note taker accompanies managers.

The grievance procedure should be made known to all workers either by providing individual copies during induction or by providing access via the organisation’s intranet site. The grievance procedure document should specify the scope and rule out issues that are covered by other company procedures such as the disciplinary, harassment, job evaluation appeal procedures etc. Further it would a good practice to have a pro forma document for notification of formal grievance and a flow chart showing how the procedure operates. Also, special allowances should be made for individuals who are disabled and whose first language is not English.

Needless to say, the grievance procedures should adhere to the rules of natural justice. It should be fair and seen to be fair. There should be full investigation by an unbiased individual to establish the facts of the case. Employees who have raised a grievance should not subsequently be disadvantaged in any way.

Regards,
Faizal Haque

Hi Swasthik,

Kindly send me grevience handling form.

Regards,
chandu

plz help me.Myself a business management student.Now for my internship my topic is "A study on the grievance handling mechanism and disciplinary process in oil india ltd"now how do i go about it.i mean data/information collection and subsequent analysis,questionnaire preparation.because finally i want to recommend something valuable to the organisation. plz throw some light on it.i will be grateful to you.Thank you.