Grievance handling is an essential part of any business, in case people have been dismissed unlawfully so there has to be a structure

and rules and regulations in place. Even in well-run businesses, it may sometimes be necessary to take disciplinary action against employees. So in essence it is vitally important to have written disciplinary rules and procedures in place in the workplace. If problems do arise, these procedures should help deter employees from making employment tribunal claims and ensure that you are dealing with employees as fairly as possible Grievance According to Michael Jucius, A grievance can be any discontent or dissatisfaction, whether expressed or not, whether valid or not, and arising out of anything connected with the company that an employee thinks, believes, or even feels as unfair, unjust, or inequitable. A grievance means any discontentment or dissatisfaction in an employee arising out of anything related to the enterprise where he is working. It may not be expressed and even may not be valid. It arises when an employee feels that something has happened or is going to happen which is unfair, unjust or inequitable. Thus, a grievance represents a situation in which an employee feels that something unfavorable to him has happened or is going to happen. In an industrial enterprise, an employee may have grievance because of long hours of work, non-fulfillment of terms of service by the management, unfair treatment in promotion, poor working facilities, etc.

1. Conformity with existing legislation: The procedure should be designed in conformity with the existing statutory provisions. Where practicable, the procedure can make use of such machinery as the law might have already provided for. 2. Acceptability: Everybody must accept the grievance procedure. In order to be generally acceptable, it must ensure the following: A sense of fair-play and justice to the worker, Reasonable exercise of authority to the manager, and Adequate participation of the union.

3. Simplicity: The following points should be noted in this regard: The procedure should be simple enough to be understood. The steps should be as few as possible. Channels for handling grievances should be carefully developed. Employees must know the authorities to be contacted at various levels.

Information about the procedure should be thoroughly disseminated among all employees through pictures, charts, diagrams, etc.

4. Promptness: Speedy settlement of a grievance is the cornerstone of a sound personnel policy. It should be remembered that justice delayed is justice denied. The procedure should aim at a rapid disposal of the grievance. This can be achieved by incorporating the following feature in the procedure: As far as possible, grievances should be settled at the lowest level No matter should ordinarily be taken up at more than two levels, i.e. normally there should be only one appeal. Different types of grievances may be referred to appropriate authorities. Time limit should be placed at each step and it should be rigidly followed at each level. 5. Training: In order to ensure effective working of the grievance procedure, it is necessary that supervisors and the union representatives should be given training in working of the grievance procedure. All the policies should be conveyed to the concerned parties. 6. Follow-up: The personnel department should review the working of the grievance procedure periodically and necessary changes should be introduced to make it more effective. This is generally ignored by the organizations. A regular follow up of the system increase the faith of the people in the system. Therefore it is necessary that the grievance procedure should be reviewed whenever it is so required.

Establishing a Grievance Procedure A grievance should be dealt with in the first instance at the lowest level: that is, an employee should raise his grievance with his immediate superior. It may be simple to settle it on the spot and that will be the end of it. Even if it cannot be settled at that level, the mans superior will know what is happening. This is necessary not only to maintain his authority, but also to prevent him from being aggrieved, as he will certainly be, if he is by-passed and hears of the complaint from his own superior. It must be made clear to the employee what line of appeal is available. If he cannot get satisfaction from his immediate superior, he should know the next higher authority to which he can go. Since delay causes frustration and tempers may rise and rumors spread around the work, it is essential that grievances should be dealt with speedily. As it is said that a stitch in time saves nine, similarly the problems of the employees should be taken care of by the management least it should become a major for the management. The grievance procedure should be set up with the participation of the employees and it should be applicable to all in the organisation. The policies and rules regarding grievances should be laid down after taking inputs from the employees and it should be uniformly applicable to all in the organisation. It

should be agreed that there would be no recourse to the official machinery of conciliation unless the procedure has been carried out and there is still dissatisfaction, and moreover, there must be no direct action on either side, which might prejudice the case or raise tempers while the grievance is being investigated.