A grievance in the traditional sense of the word is typically defined as a complaint against an employer by an employee
for a contractual violation. Simply put, this means that an employee has a problem with his/her employer and feels the
problem is legitmate based on the contract he/she has with the employer. However, not all grievances have to be contractual
grievances. Typically, labor unions have a grievance procedure by which they follow and the process of tracking that
grievance can take many forms.
1. The employee usually files the grievance with a shop steward,
grievance rep, or union/management official.
2. The grievance rep typically fills out a pre-defined grievance
form and submits it to the union for processing.
3. The union typically files the grievance and all relevant
hard copy documents into a filing cabinet or electronic database, like the IGS.
4. The grievance rep and the
labor union officials are responsible for keeping track of the grievance meeting steps 1-Arbitration.
5. The
meeting steps are usually defined in the contract between union and management and typically have timelines that must me met
between each step.
Both union and management are responsible for keeping track of the grievance
and also abiding by the contractual language that accompanies that grievance. Grievances can be filed on behalf of the
entire union or on behalf of indivual members/employees.
As stated earlier, not all complaints
have to be contractaul grievances and not all complaints even have to turn into a full-blown grievance case. Often times,
grievances are settled or resolved before they even reach the point of officially becoming a grievance. A great benefit
of using a tracking software like the Internet Grievance System is that you can identify what type of "Case" each
entry is and you can even log complaints, non-contractual grievances, grievances, events, suggestions, letters of repremand,
EEO cases, and the list goes on. The IGS team can build you a custom drop-down box within your system so you can identify
what type of case you are tracking. It is that simple and all you have to do is run reports based on which type of case
you want to reference.
Call us today at
800.213.1974 to set up your live
demo or
COMPLETE DEMO FORM and an IGS team member will contact you to schedule your live demo.