GRIEVANCE

PENEENA FLOY
Meaning And Definition Of Grievance
Grievance can be referred to as a feeling of discontentment and
dissatisfaction that an employee has regarding his employment. When an
employee has a complaint and is neglected, then a feeling of injustice and
discrimination arises in an employee. When this feelings grows up it takes
the form of a grievance.
Grievance management is the procedure through which the manager deals
with the grievances of his employees during his service. Grievance
management makes it possible to identify prospective problems of the
employees. Without grievance management, it is impossible for the
management to deal with employee problems and respond to them.
According to Dale Yoder, “Grievance is a written complaint by an
employee and claiming unfair treatment”.
Sources Of Grievance
 MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
 Management style: The autocratic style of management at one end and participative style
on the other may cause grievance among the workforce in an organisation. For example,
the workforce composed of extremely qualified people may not appreciate an autocratic
style as in the present scenario, participative style is more appreciated. Thus, the style and
practices would need to be adapted according to the current situation.
 Social Distance: The relationship between the workers and managers is characterised by
social distance. This is because there may be differences in class and cultural orientations
between management and workers. Managers view the workers as someone who is on a
much lower social scale. In such circumstances, grievance system would not be work in an
effective way as the workers are hesitant with their grievances.
 Implementation of Personnel Policies: If the personnel policies do not serve the purpose
for which they are formed, it may be a reason for grievance. There may be several
contradictions in personnel policies which may lead to grievances.
 Communication Gap: Lack of communication between the employees and the
management can also cause grievance. Matters that concern the employees or group of
employees should be informed to them.
 Supervisory Practices: Faulty supervisory style, such as, lack of consistent application of personnel policies,
biasness in applying rules and decisions, etc. can create pressure on employees and could lead to grievances.

 GRIEVANCES RESULTING FROM PERSONNEL MALADJUSTMENT

 Negative Attitude of Employees: It has been observed that employees having a negative attitude complain
frequently and are careless, casual and inconsiderate of others. They provoke others to join them and give rise
to unnecessary grievances.
 Health Problems: Employees suffering from health issues like depression, mental tension may find an outlet
by arising their grievance. When a person is already tensed due to ill health, minor concerns take the form of
grievances.
 Impractical Expectations: In any organisations, employees having high esteem often develop over
confidence and are over ambitious. These trait are main cause of grievances.

 WORK CONDITIONS
 Rigid production standards.
 Mismatch of the skills of the workers and the requirement of the job.
 Change in work hour techniques.
 Poor rapport with the supervisors.
 Poor disciplinary system.
HANDLING GRIEVANCES
Grievance handling or grievance redressal procedure is the formal system for dealing with
employees grievances. It involves several steps through which an affected employee can take his
grievance to successively higher levels of management for redressal. It is a valuable tool in the
hands of the management to keep a check or relevant analytical information about the condition
of the organisation’s health. A grievance handling procedure is essential in a large organisation
because the number of employees and the hierarchical levels are more. As a result, the manager is
unable to keep an eye on each individual or be involved in every working areas of the
organisation. In a small organisation, communication, knowledge and contact is possible to a large
extent, therefore, the need of a formal grievance procedure is reduced.
Need for a Formal Procedure to Handle
Grievances
A grievance handling system serves as an outlet for employee frustrations, discontents, and gripes like
a pressure release value on a steam boiler. Employees do not have to keep their frustrations bottled up
until eventually discontent causes explosion.
The existence of an effective grievance procedure reduces the need of arbitrary action by supervisors
because supervisors know that the employees are able to protect such behavior and make protests to be
heard by higher management. The very fact that employees have a right to be heard and are actually
heard helps to improve morale. In view of all these, every organization should have a clear-cut proce­
dure for grievance handling.
STEPS IN HANDLING PROCEDURE
1. Identification of Grievances: Those grievances of
employees which are not being disclosed must be
recognised by the management.
2. Define Correctly: After identifying the grievances,
management should correctly define them.
3. Data Collection: Every data related to grievance
must be gathered from all sources and after that it
should be classified as facts, data, opinions, etc
4. Analyse and Solve: After data collection, analysis
of information must be done in order to develop
alternative solutions and select the best solutions.
5. Prompt Redressal: After the analysis of
grievances, it must be redressed immediately by
implementing the solution in a speedy manner.
6. Implementation and Follow up: There should be
follow up after the implementation of the solution
to check the effectiveness of the solutions.
MODEL OF GRIEVANCE HANDLING
PROCEDURE
 First of all, the distressed worker approaches the foreman and communicates his grievance verbally.
 The worker will approaches the supervisor, if he is not satisfied by the redressal of his grievance by the
foreman.
 Within 48 hours, the supervisor must provide a reply. The worker will proceed towards the next step if the
supervisor is unable to provide a satisfactory reply in the given timeframe or if the reply is not accepted
by the worker.
 In the next step, worker contracts the Head of Department either alone or alongwith the representative of
his department,. He has to respond within three days.
 If the worker does not get the answer or is not satisfied with the response of the departmental head, he can
appeal to the Grievance committee. The representative of the employer and the employees constitute the
Grievance Committee.
 The committee makes its recommendation and forward it to the manager within seven days after
intimation of grievances.
 The management shall implement the agreed decisions, if any, decided by the committee.
 When there is any unanimous decision, the members of the committee place their views before the manager
of the worker for his decision. The worker is informed about the decision within three days by the manager.
 When the worker is not satisfied, he can make an appeal against the manager’s decision which has to be
again decided within a week.

The worker may be accompanied by the union official for discussion with the manager. If no decision is
taken, then within a week of the receipt of the management’s decision, both the union and management can take
grievance to voluntary arbitration.
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