What are GREVIANCES?
An official statement of a complaint over something believed to be
wrong or unfair.
A grievance is any dissatisfaction or feeling of injustice in connection
with one’s employment situation that is brought to the attention of the
management.
W’s of Grievance Handling
• WHO is involved
• WHEN did it happen
• WHERE did it happen
• WHAT happened (EXACTLY)
• WHY is it grieve-able
• WHEN must the grievance be filed
• WHAT are the deadline dates
• WHAT must be done
Types of Grievance: General
v/s Individual
• General
• The General Grievance is a
grievance that affects a group of
employees.
• Examples of general grievances
would be a wages cut or a
retrenchment exercise that
could involve several employees
or the entire workforce.
• Individual
• The Individual Grievance is a
grievance affecting one
employee and requires a one-
to-one approach, with or
without the Trade Union
Representative(TUR),
depending whether the
organization is unionized.
Grievance must fall under
the following category :
• Amenities
• Compensation
• Conditions of work
• Continuity of service
• Disciplinary action
• Fines
• Leave
• Medical benefits
• Nature of job
• Payments
• Promotions
• Safety environment
• Super Annulation
• Supersession
• Transfers
• Victimization
Important steps in grievance
handling procedure
• Accepting the grievance and acknowledging it.
• Carefully listening the problem.
• Understanding the redefining the problem to ensure that both the
parties are at the same level of understanding.
• Gathering the information – all facts and figures.
• Offering the best solution.
• Follow up.
Explanation: Grievance
Identification Techniques
• OBERVATION
Knowledge of human behavior is requisite quality of good manager.
From the changed behavior of any employee, he should snuff the
caused of grievances, without its knowledge to the employee.
• GRIP BOXEX
The suggestion boxes, for instance are placed at easily accessible
spots to most employees in the organization. The employees can file
anonymous complaints about their dissatisfaction in these boxes.
Cont.
• OPEN DOOR POLICY
Most of the organizations still don’t practice this but open door
policy demands that the employee, even at the lowest rank, should
have easy access to the Chief Executive to get his grievances
redressed.
• EXIT INTERVIEW
These interviews are conducted to know the reasons for leaving the
job. Properly conducted exit interviews can provide significant
information about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization
and can pave way for further improvements.
Effect of Grievance:
Grievance if not identified and redressed, may adversely affect workers,
managers, and the organization.
The effects are the following:
1. On the production:
a. Low quality of production.
b. Low productivity.
c. Increase in the wastage of material, spoilage/leakage of machinery.
d. Increase in the cost of production per unit.
Cont.
2. On the employees:
a. Increase in the rate of absenteeism and turnover.
b. Reduction in the level of commitment, sincerity and punctuality.
c. Increase in the incidence of accidents.
d. Reduction in the level of employee morale.
3. On the managers:
a. Strained superior-subordinate relations.
b. Increase in the degree of supervision and control.
c. Increase in indiscipline cases.
d. Increase in unrest and thereby machinery to maintain industrial
peace.
Benefits of Grievance
Handling:
Enables the management to know the pulse of its employees.
Provides a channel to the aggrieved to express their grievances.
Gives an assurance to the employees about the existence of a
mechanism for the prompt redressal of their grievance.
It encourages employees to raise concerns without fear of reprisal.
It provides a fair & speedy means of dealing of grievances.
It prevents minor disagreement developing into more serious
disputes.
It saves employer’s time & money as solutions are found for
workplace problems.
It helps build in organizational climate based on openness and trust.