Grievance

Grievance means any type of dissatisfaction or discontentments arising out of factors related to an employee’s job which he thinks are unfair. A grievance arises when an employee feels that something has happened or is happening to him which he thinks is unfair, unjust or inequitable. In an organization, a grievance may arise due to several factors such as:

*Violation of management’s responsibility such as poor working conditions
*Violation of company’s rules and regulations
*Violation of labor laws
*Violation of natural rules of justice such as unfair treatment in promotion, etc.

Various sources of grievance may be categorized under three heads:

(i) management policies,

(ii) working conditions,

(iii) personal factors

Grievance resulting from management policies include:

Wage rates
Leave policy
Overtime
Lack of career planning
Role conflicts
Lack of regard for collective agreement
Disparity between skill of worker and job responsibility

Grievance resulting from working conditions include:

Poor safety and bad physical conditions
Unavailability of tools and proper machinery
Negative approach to discipline
Unrealistic targets

Grievance resulting from inter-personal factors include

Poor relationships with team members
Autocratic leadership style of superiors
Poor relations with seniors
Conflicts with peers and colleagues

It is necessary to distinguish a complaint from grievance. A complaint is an indication of employee dissatisfaction that has not been submitted in written. On the other hand, a grievance is a complaint that has been put in writing and made formal. Grievances are symptoms of conflicts in industry. Therefore, management should be concerned with both complaints and grievances, because both may be important indicators of potential problems within the workforce. Without a grievance procedure, management may be unable to respond to employee concerns since managers are unaware of them. Therefore, a formal grievance procedure is a valuable communication tool for the organization.

Grievance procedure is a formal communication between an employee and the management designed for the settlement of a grievance. The grievance procedures differ from organization to organization.

1. Open door policy:

Open door policy: Under this policy, the aggrieved employee is free to meet the top executives of the organization and get his grievances redressed. Such a policy works well only in small organizations. However, in bigger organizations, top management executives are usually busy with other concerned matters of the company. Moreover, it is believed that open door
policy is suitable for executives; operational employees may feel shy to go to top management.

2. Step-ladder policy

Step ladder policy: Under this policy, the aggrieved employee has to follow a step by step procedure for getting his grievance redressed. In this procedure, whenever an employee is confronted with a grievance, he presents his problem to his immediate supervisor. If the employee is not satisfied with superior’s decision, then he discusses his grievance with the departmental head. The departmental head discusses the problem with joint grievance committees to find a solution. However, if the committee also fails to redress the grievance, then it may be referred to chief executive. If the chief executive also fails to redress the grievance, then such a grievance is referred to voluntary arbitration where the award of arbitrator is binding on both the parties.