Warunika N.

Hettiarachchi
 Define What a grievance is
 Understand the importance of solving employee grievances
 Identify the causes of grievances
 Understand identification of grievances
 Describe the methods of settling grievances
 Explain the important principles that should be protected in a
formal grievance settlement procedure, and strategies of solving
grievances
 Identify the responsibility of solving grievances
1.Grievance is any real or imagined feeling of personal
injustice, which an employee has, concerning his
employment relationship
Davis

2.Grivance is a complaint of one or more workers in respect

of wages, allowances, condition of work and interpretation
of service stipulations covering such areas as overtime,
leave, transfer, promotion, seniority, job assignment and
termination of service
The International Labour Organization
 Anti
Grievance Grievance attitudes Industrial
of one of group of towards Disputes
employee employees managers

Decline
organizational
Productivity
1. Absenteeism
2. Turnover
3. Low
effectiveness
& efficiency
4. Impairment
Causes relating to the job
 The employee has no capability of performing
relevant duties and responsibilities of the job
 The employee has been entrusted to perform a duty
that is not in the job description given
 The employee is placed on a job that does not match
with the employee’s knowledge and skills
 The training given to perform the job is not adequate
or incorrect
 The employee has been assigned too many duties that
he/she could not handle
Causes relating to the Working conditions
 Changing the working time or place which the
employee does not like
 There are many work hazards and unpleasant
conditions threatening health and safety of the
employee/s
 Poor relationship between the superior and the
employee
 The supervisor or immediate supervisor follows an
authoritative leadership style or works prejudicially
 No availability of necessary materials equipment and
other things to perform the job successfully
Causes relating to the personnel Management Decisions
such as policies, procedures and practices
 Employee wages/ salaries
 Incentives
 Promotions
 Transfers
 Layoffs
 Professional training and development
 Performance evaluation
 Leave
 Discipline
 Recruitment and selection
 Unfavorable attitudes towards trade unions
Causes relating to alleged violations of terms and
conditions
 The management violates the terms of collective
agreement
 Working / decisions making against the past practice/
precedent
 Making unfair/ strong disciplinary actions for
violations of disciplinary rules
 Ignoring responsibility of the management
Causes relating to inappropriate personal behaviour
 The employee is over ambitious
 The employee has unrealistic self-esteem
 The employee has unpractical attitudes of the life
 The employee has unbearable/ unnecessary life styles
 The employee has illegal involvements
 Exit Interviews
 Attitude surveys
 Complaints / Grievance box
 Observation
Exit Interview
Generally employees resign from the jobs of the
organizations because of high dissatisfaction or securing a
better job in another organization. Interviews can be held
with those employees who leave the organization. Knowing
why they leave the organization may reveal some
grievances being faced by the employees. Employees who
are about to exit may tend to reveal the true problems
genuinely as they do not stay with the organization
Attitude surveys

A survey can be designed and conducted through data

collection techniques such as questionnaire, interview
etc in order to find current grievances and or/grievances
that may arise in future. Through this method will take
a considerable time and efforts many grievances may
reveal from the respondents who genuinely tell about
(under the anonymity)
Complaints /Grievance Box
It is possible to install complaints boxes at the suitable
places within the organization for the purpose of
obtaining complaints from the employees. Anonymous
or named complaints can be expected to be put into
these boxes. These boxes should be different from the
boxes which are for obtaining named suggestions to
improve the works for which rewards are available
Observation
The manager can observe directly or indirectly the
behaviour of the subordinates to find out whether there
are unusual ones. There may be subordinates who are
not willing to express their grievances. These
grievances may be evidenced by symptoms such as
insubordination, tardiness, moodiness, or a decline in
quality of work or quantity of work
1. Formal Grievance Settlement
Procedure
2. Open- door policy
3. Quasi method
4. Committee Approach
5. Counseling
6. Ombudsman
7. Mixed method
 Arbitration

Trade Union General

Leader 7 days Manager/CEO

Trade Union 4days Human Resource

Representative Manager

Immediate
Grievant 2days Superior’s
Superior

Grievant Immediate
24 hours Superior
 Try to solve grievances at the lowest management level
 It must be made clear to employee what line of appeal is
 It is essential that grievances should be dealt with speedily
 The grievance procedure should be set up with
participation of the employees and it should be applicable
to all in the organization.
 It should be simple and understandable
1. Treat all grievances as important
2. Obtain all the relevant information
3. Discuss
4. Proper listening
5. Build trust
6. Accept mistake
7. Utilize the authority wisely
8. Give the decision promptly
9. Do a follow-up
10. Seek expert advice if necessary
11. Maintain records for future reference
12. Get a proper training on grievance handling
 As hidden grievances are disclosed, the management is in a
position to find quick solutions
 This assures that management act fairly and that employees
are equally treated.
 As the decision made by a manger of lower level is subject
to review by a manager of high level in handling grievances,
it requires managers to be more careful when making
decisions with regard to grievance handling.
 It gives a reassurance to a grievant by the mere fact that
there is a mechanism available to him/ her which will
consider the grievance impartially.
 It is an effective communication channel or avenue from
employees to the management
 It helps in preventing larger problems( like strikes) from
occurring in future by solving smaller problems early.
This method allows every employee to see the CEO of
the organization with grievance to settle. The door of
the chief manager is open to any employee who is
suffering from a grievance. The chief manager is ready
to listen to the grievant and attempts to redress it.
A personnel/ HRM specialist or a third party represents
the grievant in this method. The specialist attempts to
find a solution for the grievance to a certain degree of
satisfaction of the grievant. As a specialist involves in
handling the grievance a more fair treatment is
expected. Relatively cost may be higher.
A separate committee consisting of several mangers is
appointed for the purpose of settlement of employee
grievances. As several managers involve, more
acceptable and fair settlement can be expected. The
time and other costs are relatively higher.
This is a two way process. Counselor will provide
guidelines to the grievant so that he/she will be able to
find a solution to settle the grievance. This method is
more appropriate for settling grievances which arise
from reasons relating to the personal life of the
employees. This has a higher cost but the benefits will
exceed the cost if administered properly.
A special respected, neutral person is appointed to cope
with grievances. He/she will accept grievances and
facilitate towards settling the grievances. He/she
investigates grievances and recommends actions to
management.
Generally a personnel specialist and a grievance
settlement committee will be appointed for handling
grievances.
A main duty of personnel specialist (Grievance
handling) is to receive grievances in writing from
employees and forward them with his/her observations
to the grievance settlement committee. Decisions to
solve grievance will be made by the committee.
1. Allow to talk
2. Escape from the situation
3. Allow to get over/blow up
4. Give in
5. Give more responsible tasks
than before
6. Allow to go Aside
7. Share with the grievant
The manager can give a sufficient time to the employee
to tell his/ her grievance. After talking to the superior,
perhaps the employee gets a considerable relief by
expressing his/ her feelings rather than suppressing the
grievance. In this context, the manager must have a
very good ability of listening.
Transferring the grievant from the current working
environment to another environment may be a cause of
reducing his/ her mental frustration. Consequently
refreshing the memory due to the peer pressure and
other conditions is prevented.
The employee who is genuinely having a grievance
might lose his/ her temper and become very angry
before manager. The manager can allow the grievant
blow up so that he/ she can release tension by arguing,
scolding and being noisy. Tactically this method may
be appropriate rather than having a serious conflict
between the superior and the subordinate.
Sometimes the manager can acknowledge that he/she is
defeated or mistaken to reduce the mental frustration of
the grievant( if manager has done a mistake or
misunderstood) Admitting superior's mistake is a
principle of good grievance handling.
The manager may entrust the grievant with a more
responsibility duty in order to create an attitude that the
boss has still the trust and appreciation about the
grievant. This may contribute to reduce the mental
distress of the grievant provided that the expected
attitude will develop within the employee.
If the employee goes aside without facing the superior
directly the superior can tolerate that behaviour as he/
she is suffering from a grievance.
Eg: If salutation(good morning) was a behaviour
exhibited by the employee before he/ she became a
grievant, the manager should not expect it now( until
the grievance is settled)
If the manager is not in a position of giving a solution
that is to the satisfaction of the grievant, he/ she can
sincerely state the inability and share the suffering
with the grievant to the possible extent.
Eg: Serous illness of employee’s mother