High Turnover in Construction: How Can We Improve Our Grievance Handling System?

Hi all,

I am an HR executive in a construction company where employee turnover is very high. My friend is also working with me. He has to develop the grievance handling system. Please suggest to us. Please reply ASAP.

Grievance Handling:

A Grievance is a clear statement by an employee of a work-related problem, concern or complaint, including those involving:

• The interpretation and application of an organization's people management policies. This includes allocation of work, job design, and performance management.

• A workplace communication or interpersonal conflict.

• An occupational health and safety issue.

• A question, dispute or difficulty concerning the interpretation, application, or operation of an award/enterprise agreement or other agreement.

• A difference, complaint or dispute regarding the interpretation or application of established policies and/or procedures governing terms of employment, working conditions, hours of work or compensation. General wage adjustments are excluded from the grievance procedure.

Responsibility / Accountability: Human Resource Department, Senior Management, Corporate and the Senior Vice President Human Resources

Procedural aspects to be followed:

Stage 1: An employee with an individual grievance directly relating to their employment will raise the matter formally in writing with their Authorized Manager (Immediate Superior). A meeting must take place within 7 working days and the manager will gather further information as appropriate. The manager's response will be confirmed in writing within 7 working days.

Stage 2: If the grievance is not resolved the employee should write to the Senior Management along with the copy of the same to the HR department within One week of receipt of the written confirmation arising from Stage 1, requesting the procedure progress to Stage 2.

A meeting will then be arranged within one week after that. The grievance committee, comprising of the concerned Senior Management, Head of the HR department and an employee representative, will conduct this meeting. The concerned employee will attend the meeting along with any other staff directly involved with the grievance. The decision reached at this meeting will be recorded and confirmed in writing with copies sent to all relevant parties within 7 working days.

Stage 3: Should the grievance remain unresolved following Stage 2, or if the grievance is against the Senior Management, Stage 3 will be invoked. The employee must submit details in writing of the unresolved issue/s to the Vice President Human Resources and Regional Vice President within 7 days of completion of stage 2. The Vice President or the nominated Deputy will arrange a grievance hearing within 2 weeks after the receipt of their details.

The employee, Senior Management, Regional Vice President, a staff representative (if so desired) and any other persons directly concerned with the grievance will attend the meeting. Having considered the grievance, the Vice President Human Resources will communicate the decision in writing to both parties within 7 working days of the hearing.

The decision of the Vice President Human Resources is final.



You can design your Grievance redressal system taking help from this.

Hope it will be help.

Cheers

Archna Khurana

Dear Sadashiv,

Archnar has given you a comprehensive account of the grievance procedure. I thought you might be interested in some developments taking place in the UK on the same issue, which are as follows:

Are there any future developments expected in the area of statutory disciplinary procedures and grievance procedures?

The legal requirement for all organizations to have disciplinary and grievance procedures in place has been in effect since 1 October 2004, and the fine-tuning of the procedures is continuing as more decided cases emerge. The application of these procedures by the tribunals will, therefore, be the main source of future developments.

There is also one major provision of the Employment Act 2002 (section 30) that has not yet been activated. This relates to the ability to make the minimum procedures a contractual term in all contracts of employment in the UK. The new statutory procedures were originally intended to be implied into all contracts of employment as an actual contractual term, rather than just being a minimum standard required of employers. In July 2003, the Department of Trade and Industry announced that the statutory disciplinary and grievance procedures were to remain non-contractual until further notification by the government.

At some future time, therefore, these procedures may become an implied contractual term rather than a statutory minimum procedure as at present. Once they have contractual effect, even employees with less than one year's continuity of employment will be able to sue for breach of contract if employers fail to follow the procedures. Employers' restrictive covenants will also be at risk if they depart from the procedures if they are contractual.

The Government intends to undertake a review of the dispute resolution regulations in late 2006; before then, some minor amendments are proposed to ensure that the three-step procedure applies before presenting some unusual employment law claims. Examples of these claims include those from employees complaining of detrimental treatment resulting from their functions as a European Company employee representative, or from enforcing an Information and Consultation right or a right under the 2006 Pensions Regulations consultation provisions.

Some of these will become useful in the Asian context too in time to come.

Cheers,

Prof. Lakshman