LECTURE 10

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
IHRMP LECTURE – TEMA CAMPUS
SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2018
RESOURCE PERSON: JOSEPH C. GARBRAH
(CEO – JC-HR CONSULT, TAKORADI)
 Refer to my Feature Article in the May 13, 2017,
edition of the Daily Graphic.
 Definition of Grievance:
 Generic definition
 Contextual definition in HR/IR.
 Potential Sources of Grievance.
 Reasons for Employee Grievance.
 Significance of Employee Grievance.
 Grievance Procedure – Refer to Handout and
GREL CBA.
 Display Policy on Fair Treatment System (FTS).
 Concluding points to note.

LECTURE OUTLINE
The 10th Edition of the Chambers Dictionary
(2007) defines Grievance as: “a cause or
source of grief; a ground of complaint; a
formal complaint; a condition felt to be
oppressive or wrongful; a burden or hardship.”

In fact, the word grievance comes from

“grieve”: “to feel grief; to vex; to inflict bodily
pain on or do bodily harm to” [somebody].

GENERIC DEFINITION OF
GRIEVANCE
A grievance represents the core of contract
administration and is defined as an employee’s
(or employer’s) alleged violation of the labour
agreement that is submitted to the grievance
procedure for resolution by the employee (or
union representative) or employer. A grievance
is therefore distinguished from an employee’s
concern that is unrelated to labour agreement
provisions and is not submitted to the
grievance procedure (Holley, Jennings and
Wolters, 2009). Grievances must ideally be
written out.

CONTEXTUAL DEFINITION OF
GRIEVANCE
1.Administrative Issues:
 Safety and Health
 Promotion and Transfers
 Training
 Layoffs/Recall, etc.
2. Economic Issues:
 Wage rates
 Wage increases
 Job classifications – briefly recount personal experience at VALCO during
Job Evaluation results presentations.
 Merit pay, etc.
3. Employee Discipline:
 Reasonable rules
 Fair and thorough investigation
 Insubordination
 Sexual harassment
 Absences/tardiness, etc.

POTENTIAL SOURCES OF
GRIEVANCE
An employee could file a grievance for one or more of the following
reasons:
 To Protest a Contractual Violation – that is why we need to
exercise due diligence and support administration of the CBA
articles with Policies and Procedures for both entrenched clauses
and management prerogatives.
 To draw attention to a Problem in the
Organisation/Enterprise – mostly on safety issues.
 To make the Grievant and Union Feel Important – in
nonunion settings, the authority of managerial policies and
actions often goes unchallenged. However, the grievance
procedure permits and encourages an employee to protest an
alleged wrong committed by management officials. Some union
officials wish to emphasise their importance through grievance
involvement.
 To get Something for Nothing – Some managers believe that a
REASONS FOR EMPLOYEE
few employees file grievances to receive pay related to their skill
in formulating and writing grievances instead of their work
GRIEVANCE
efforts. (Pathological Litigants). This is however uncommon in
Ghana. It must be stressed that management must process the
grievance even if it feels the employee’s motives are illegitimate
or improper.
Employee grievances and the grievance procedure can offer an
organisation two advantages:
 Conflict institutionalisation
 Open upward communication.
Employees who attempt to resolve grievances at an organisation
having no grievance procedure might participate in various job
actions, such as sabotage, wildcat strikes and job slowdowns, to
solve the problem; or they might quit their jobs.
A grievance procedure, however, institutionalises conflict. It
recognises that disagreements between employees, management,
and the union are inevitable and provides an orderly, consistent
approach for resolving differences.
Grievances and related procedures represent a major upward
communication forum for employee voice, whereby an individual
has an opportunity to offer input into management’s decision
making and to discuss, even appeal, adverse employment actions.

SIGNIFICANCE OF EMPLOYEE
GRIEVANCE
Refer to the notes in the Handout and go
through the Grievance Handling procedure
as enshrined in the GREL CBA.

Note – Grievance Handling is mainly

for unionised employees and not
Senior and Management Staff (non-
unionised employees). Where Senior
and Management Staff are also
unionised Grievance Handling might be
used.

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
The Fair Treatment System (FTS) is only a way of
addressing the grievances of especially non-
unionised Senior and Management Staff. Their
Conditions of Service can also be breached by
Management.

Senior and Management Staff must also be given a

voice. A policy on Fair Treatment System can be
developed for that purpose.

Display and Explain the Policy on Fair Treatment

System I developed for GREL in 2010 (show the
signed hard copy also).

FAIR TREATMENT SYSTEM

For industrial peace and harmony to prevail emphasis should
be on:
 Observance of Procedural Justice – Procedural justice
focuses on the fairness of the procedures used to make
decisions. Procedures are fair to the extent that they are
consistent across persons and overtime, free from bias,
based on accurate information, correctable, and based on
prevailing moral and ethical standards (Wayne F. Cascio,
1992).
 Following Due Process – Due process in legal proceedings
provides individuals with rights such as the following: prior
notice of prohibited conduct; timely procedures adhered to
at each step of the procedure; notice of the charges or
issues prior to a hearing; impartial judges or hearing
officers; representation by counsel; opportunity to confront
and to cross-examine adverse witnesses and evidence, as
well as to present proof in one’s defence; notice of
decision, and protection from retaliation for using a
CONCLUDING POINTS TO
complaint procedure in a legitimate manner. These are
constitutional due process rights (Wayne F. Cascio, 1992).
NOTE
 Mutual Respect – I have always emphasised that our field
is HRM and not A(nimal)RM.
THANK YOU