According to Dale Yoder, “Grievance is written complaint filed by an employee and claiming unfair treatment”
According to Beach, “It is any dissatisfaction or feeling of injustice in connection with one`s employment situation that is bought to the notice of the management”
Causes of Grievances –
- Unsatisfactory working conditions
- Unsatisfactory Management policies
- Unsatisfactory Wages and Salaries
- Unfair or Unjust Treatment
- Too much Work Load/Pressure
- Problems relating to Supervision and Work groups
- Superficial personal aspirations
Forms of Grievance –
- Factual Grievance – It arises when a legitimate need of an employee has not been met.
- Imaginary Grievance – It arises when an employee`s grievance is based on a Wrong perception, Wrong assumption or Incorrect Information and is not a legitimate need. It leads to development of a negative attitude towards the organization.
- Disguised Grievance – It arises when an employee is dissatisfied due to reasons unknown to him. These grievances arise when the psychological needs of the employees have not been met.
Grievance Handling Procedure:
1) Identify Grievances – This step involves identification of employee grievances by the management through observation, previous complaints, Open door Policy, Opinion surveys, Interview etc.
2) Define Correctly – After the problem has been identified the next step is to define the problem properly and accurately.
3) Collect Data – It involves collection of information from all the parties concerned.
4) Analyse and Solve – This step includes analysis of all the collected information and development of various alternative solutions to the Grievances through group discussions and brainstorming.
5) Prompt redressal – It involves implementation of the solution selected by the management.
6) Implement and Follow-up – A follow up is necessary to ensure that the grievance has been resolved completely.
Model of Grievance Handling procedure –
These are successive time bound steps suggested by national commission of labour for grievance handling.
| Step 1 | Worker | Worker orally explains his grievance to his immediate supervisor. | |
| Step 2 | Supervisor | 48 hours | The supervisor has 48 hours to solve the grievance. |
| Step 3 | Head of department | 3 days | If the supervisor is not able to satisfy the employee, he along with the worker report to the HOD. |
| Step 4 | Grievance Committee (equal representation of employers and employees) | 7 days | If the HOD fails to solve the problem in 3 days, the worker can appeal to the grievance committee which has 7 days to solve it. |
| Step 5 | Management | 3 days | Generally, a unanimous decision of the committee is implemented by the management. However the final decision is made by the management which has 3 days for it. |
| Step 6 | Appeal to management for Revision | 7 days | If the employee is not satisfied with the management`s decision he can appeal against it. Such an appeal has to be decided within a week. |
| Step 7 | Voluntary arbitration | 7 days | If the management is unable to satisfy the employee they may refer the case to voluntary arbitration within a week. |
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