04. IDENTIFICATION OF GRIEVANCE AND ITS REDRESSAL PROCESS

 

4.1 Identification of Grievance

Grievances should be redressed by adopting a proactive approach rather than waiting for the grievances to be brought to the notice of management. A proactive approach to grievance redressal helps the management to take action for modifying those factors that are responsible for the emergence of grievances while in a reactive approach, a particular grievance gets redressed but its underlying causes continue to exist.

A grievance is often just a symptom of the underlying problem. Unless this problem is overcome, the redressal of a grievance may be a temporary solution. It is often said that ‘a good management redresses grievances as they arise, excellent management anticipates them and prevents them from arising’. For adopting a proactive approach to grievance management, it is essential to identify the nature of grievances and the underlying factors.

 

The management can go through four methods for identifying grievances.

Identify grievances are:

          Exit Interview:

Employees generally quit the organizations due to dissatisfaction or better prospectors elsewhere. Exit interviews, if conducted effectively, can provide vital information about employees’ grievances.

 

   Opinion surveys:

A survey could be undertaken to find out how employees feel about the company they work, for and their colleagues.

 

   Gripe boxes :

Gripe boxes may be kept at prominent locations in the industries. Lodging anonymous complaints about any aspect relating to work. Since the person lodging the complaint need not reveal his identity he can reveal his feelings of injustice or discontent fairly and without any fear of victimization.

 

   Open door policy :

This is a kind of walk-in-interview or meeting with the manager when the employee can express his feelings about any work-related grievance. The manager can cross-check the details of the complaint through various means at his disposal.

   Observation:

The manager can observe directly or indirectly the behavior of the subordinates to find out whether there are unusual ones. There may be subordinates who aren’t willing to express their grievance. It may be evidenced by symptoms such as insubordination, tardiness, sullenness, moodiness, or a decline in the quality of work or quantity of work.

 

4.2.Feartures of the Grievance Redressal System

Just as the disciplinary procedure is used where the organization has cause to complain about the behavior of an employee, so also where an employee has cause to complain about the organization, he requires a parallel mechanism. This helps to prevent minor disagreements from sparking off major conflicts, and can also improve employee retention.

A systematic grievance redressal procedure must have the following features:

1. It should be simple, fair, and easy to understand.

2. It should be in writing.

3. It should specify to whom employees may take a grievance in the first instance (normally their immediate boss), and that they have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or a trade union representative.

4. It should encourage employees to put forth their grievances.

5. It should state where, in the event of the grievance remaining unresolved, an employee should then address his complaint.

6. It should specify time limits within which the aggrieved employee can expect to be notified of the outcome of his complaint.

7. It should have regular meetings of the grievance committee, and a record of proceedings properly minutely should be sent to all the parties.

8. It should gain employee confidence.

9. It should promote healthy relations between employees and the company.

 

As in the case of disciplinary procedure, the spirit in which the implementation of this process is approached is extremely important; and equally important is the amount of time and effort that management is prepared to devote to handle grievances systematically and effectively.

The details of the grievance procedure and the number of steps in it may vary from organization to organization depending on its size and the number of employees. The procedure may have as few as two steps or as many as ten also. The grievance procedure may be of an open-door type or of a step-ladder type.

In the open-door approach, grievances can be taken up with senior management directly, rather than through the stages. This is useful if an employee thinks that his superior is treating him unfairly, has made a wrong decision, or if he feels that the company is making a mistake over a new policy or practice.

The grievance process has at least three purposes and consequences. First, settling minor problems at an early stage may prevent major problems from occurring in the future. Second, a grievance analysis serves as a source of data to focus the attention of the two parties on ambiguities in the contract for negotiation at a future date. Lastly, the grievance process is an effective channel for upward communication.

4.2 Grievance Redressal Procedure

The procedure should be formally requiring a written statement in respect of grievance. There seems to be great merit in preparing for the completion of a special grievance handling form (White,1989). In this regard, Chruden and Sherman (1985,p407) write:

“Requiring a written statement reduces the chance for various of the grievance to appear because of laps in memory, forces the employees to be more rational and to think more carefully about their grievance resulting in that grievance which stems from trial complaints or feeling of hostility are less likely to be pursued beyond the first step”

Steps of formal Grievance Redressal Procedure

Steps of formal grievance redressal procedure

At present, there are three legislations dealing with grievances of employees working in industries. The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, requires that every establishment employing 100 or more workers should frame standing orders. These should contain, among other things, a provision for redressal of grievances of workers against unfair treatment and wrongful actions by the employer or his agents.

The Factories Act, 1948, provides for the appointment of a Welfare Officer in every factory ordinarily employing 500 or more workers. These welfare officers also look after the complaints and grievances of workers. They also look after the proper implementation of the existing labor legislation. Besides, individual disputes relating to discharge, dismissal, or retrenchment can be taken up for relief under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, amended in 1965.

The Model Grievance Procedure suggested by the National Commission on Labour involves six successive time-bound steps each leading to the next, in case of dissatisfaction. The aggrieved worker in the first instance will approach the foreman and tell him of his grievance orally. The foreman has to redress his grievance and if the worker is not satisfied with this redressal, he can approach the supervisor.

The supervisor has to provide an answer within 48 hours. In the event of the supervisor not giving an answer or the answer not being acceptable to the worker, the worker goes to the next step. At this stage, the worker (either alone or accompanied by his departmental representative) approaches the Head of the Department who has to give an answer within three days.

If the Departmental Head fails to give an answer or if the worker is not satisfied with his answer, the worker may appeal to the Grievance Committee, consisting of the representatives of the employer and employees.

The recommendations of this Committee should be communicated to the Manager within seven days from the date of the grievance reaching it. Unanimous decisions, if any, of the committee shall be implemented by the management. If there is no unanimity, the views of the members of the Committee shall be placed before the manager for his decision. The manager has to make a decision and inform the worker within three days.

The worker can make an appeal against the manager’s decision and such an appeal has to be decided within a week. A union official may accompany the worker to the manager for discussion and if no decision arrives at this stage, both the union and management may refer the grievance to voluntary arbitration within a week of the receipt of the management’s decision. The worker in actual practice may not resort to all the above-mentioned steps.

I would like to quote Mitchell A. Armstrong (2012). Ac­cording to him a well-designed and properly structured grievance redressal procedure provides:

(a) A channel of the avenue by which an aggrieved employee may present his grievance.

(b) A procedure that ensures that there will be systematic handling of every grievance.

(c) A method by which an aggrieved employee can relieve his feelings of dissatisfaction with his job, working conditions, or with the manage­ment.

(d) A means of ensuring that there are some measures of promptness in the handling of the grievance.

Reference 

Economics Discussion. 2022. Grievance: Meaning, Definitions, Procedure, Types, Model, Features. [online] Available at: <https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/human-resource-management/grievance/grievance/32442> [Accessed 9 May 2022].

indiafreenotes. 2022. Effects of Employee Grievance. [online] Available at: <https://indiafreenotes.com/effects-of-employee-grievance/> [Accessed 9 May 2022].

Mohamed,L.S(1992), A Practical Approach to Grievance Handling, Kuala Lumpur:SMPD Management Consultants SDN BHD

Opatha, H..D.N.P.(1994),” Employee Grievance Settlement Procedure: A Case  Study of Two Corporations”, Management Review, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka,1,2:pp.53-60.

Chruden, H.J.and Sherman, A.W. (1985), Personnel Management, Ohio: South-Western Publishing Co.