INTRODUCTION All workers, and migrant workers in particular, should have access to grievance mechanisms that allow them

to voice concerns without fear of punishment or retribution. The provision of these mechanisms by the employer is particularly crucial for migrant workers. Grievance mechanisms have many helpful purposes. They can serve to channel conflict into an institutionalized mechanism for peaceful resolution. They facilitate communication between workers and management regarding problems that arise, and enable workers to complain with dignity, knowing that there is a system of appeals leading to an impartial decision maker. Finally, they assist the company in ensuring that its staff is complying with company standards on ethical conduct. Company policy should include a description of the different processes and channels for workers to provide feedback on company practices and workplace issues particularly those directly impacting workers employment concerns and welfare, and those relating to social responsibility standards. A robust grievance mechanism will allow employers to have a stronger, more stable workforce and will allow potential disruptive risks to be identified early. This can save employers time and money. It can also improve morale, and protect against reputational and legal risk.

What Makes A Grievance Mechanism Effective

1. Established procedures are easy to understand; 2. A mechanism to ensure workers confidentiality; 3. A procedure for management to follow-up on reported grievances that is communicated to workers; 4. A procedure that allows workers to report a grievance against a supervisor to an impartial entity, and in any case to someone other than that supervisor or any other manager in that supervisors chain of command; 5. A procedure for workers to monitor the status of complaints; 6. Existence of an appeals system; 7. A policy that ensures that workers who report a grievance can do so without fear of penalty, dismissal or reprisal of any kind; 8. A policy that provides workers with grievances access to additional support or advocacy (i.e. interpreters, counseling). 9. Employers should set up grievance mechanisms that allow workers to take their problems, complaints and/or suggestions to management through different channels, depending on the issues being reported, who the worker has a complaint regarding, and how comfortable workers feel in reporting their grievances. 10.Possible examples of channels include: 11.a supervisor 12.a workers representative during worker assemblies 13.a union representative 14.workers committee 15.phone or text hotline (can be anonymous)

MEANING & DEFINITION

A "grievance" is a written complaint. It can be about how the employer is using the collective agreement. An employee may also disagree with the employer about what the agreement means, and file a grievance about that. As well, a grievance can be used if the employee thinks that the terms and conditions of their job have changed unfairly, or are not being honored. The new grievance procedure cannot be activated verbally, but requires a written submission. An Issue Presentation/Grievance Form is available from the shop steward, the YEU office or the employer. While a grievance will be accepted if it is not submitted on this form, use of the form will speed the process and ensure all requirements are met. A "grievance" is not a tool for dealing with suspensions, dismissals, or competition appeals. Nor should this particular process be used to file harassment or discrimination grievances. All these issues are properly addressed through separate processes, with the assistance of a Service Officer or other designated union representative. Grievances are also not the right tool for day-to-day discussions and the occasional disagreements that can occur between employees and their supervisors. In fact, one of the basic ideas behind the new procedure is problem solving, something that can most often be achieved by fair and open discussion in the workplace.

The "grievance procedure" is the agreed way a complaint can be heard. It is nothing more than a standardized set of steps to follow when someone has a complaint or a problem.

TYPES OF GRIEVANCES
The Collective Agreement allows for three kinds of grievances. 1. Individual Grievances 2. Group Grievances 3. Policy Grievances A union-employee of the Yukon government has the right to submit an "individual grievance" one that is about that employee's own situation. These grievances are filed to the employee's supervisor. A "group grievance" can be filed when more than one employee has been affected in the same way by a decision of management. All the employees in a group grievance must want a similar solution, or "redress". In this case, the names of all employees who are part of the grievance are attached. One example might be the cancellation of vacation leave for everyone in the group. Group grievances are filed directly to Level 2 (the first level of management). A "policy grievance" involves how the Collective Agreement is interpreted, and matters that affect the union as a whole. These grievances are only filed by the union (not an individual member), and are filed directly to the Public Service Commissioner.

STEPS OF THE GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

The GEO Grievance procedure has four steps. A grievance may be withdrawn or resolved at any step. See Article XIV of the GEO Contract for more specific guidelines and timelines. Step 1 Informal resolution At Step 1 you seek informal resolution of the grievance by talking to your supervisor about possible solutions. At this stage you may or may not refer to the dispute as a grievance, and may or may not be in contact with the grievance committee. You have 40 days from having knowledge of the facts giving rise to the grievance to begin Step 1. Step 1 ends either when you consider the grievance to be resolved or when you inform your supervisor that their final suggested resolution is unacceptable. Step 2 Departmental Hearing At Step 2 you work with a representative of the Grievance Committee to write a letter articulating the specific grievance and to argue for your preferred resolution at a meeting with the hiring units executive officer. Step 2 is initiated when GEO, acting on your behalf, sends a letter to the department requesting a meeting. This letter must be sent within 20 days of the end of step 1. Once the department has received the letter, it has 14 days to schedule a meeting. The department must then inform GEO of its ruling within 14 days of the hearing. Step 3 University Hearing Should the hiring units answer at Step 2 be unsatisfactory, we have the opportunity of escalating to the university level and having the grievance heard by

U-Ms division of Academic Human Resources. Step 3 is initiated when GEO sends a Step 3 letter to Academic Human Resources. This letter must be sent within 15 days of receiving the unsatisfactory Step 2 response. Once Academic Human Resources has received our letter, they have 14 days to schedule a meeting. Academic Human Resources will inform GEO of its ruling within 30 days of the university hearing. Step 4 Impartial Arbitration From time to time, GEO will use impartial arbitration to dispute the grievance determinations made by Academic Human Resources. The process is fairly costly and time consuming, so the authority to decide to take a case to arbitration is reserved for GEOs Stewards Council. Typically, GEO will only pursue arbitration if we are confident that the case is winnable and persuaded that arbitration is the only way to correct a significant harm.

CONCEPT OF EMPLOYEE GRIEVANCES

Employee grievances are a matter of important concern for human resource management. Grievancesare employees perception of unfair treatment on the job. It leads to the feeling of dissatisfaction ordiscontent. They mainly results from difference in employee expectations and managerial practicesrelating to conditions of employment.According to Grievance mechanisms have many helpful purposes. They can serve to channel conflict into an institutionalized mechanism for peaceful resolution. They facilitate communication between workers and management regarding problems that arise, and enable workers to complain with dignity, knowing that there is a system of appeals leading to an impartial decision maker. Finally, they assist the company in ensuring that its staff is complying with company standards on ethical conduct. Company policy should include a description of the different processes and channels for workers to provide feedback on company practices and workplace issues particularly those directly impacting workers employment concerns and welfare, and those relating to social responsibility standards. A robust grievance mechanism will allow employers to have a stronger, more stable workforce and will allow potential disruptive risks to be identified early. This can save employers time and money. It can also improve morale, and protect against reputational and legal risk.

CAUSES OF GRIEVANCES
1. Interpretation Difference: Terms and conditions of employment contract interpreted differently 2. Management Practices:- Faulty implementation of HRP.- Rigidity of rules.Inconsistency in application of rules and decisions by supervisors etc 3. .Labor Union Practices: Labor unions may encourage employees to unnecessarily report grievances. 4. Personality Traits: Some find fault with every little matter. They are habituated in voicing grievances 5. Organizational Culture: Poor organizational culture creates friction and misunderstanding among employees. 6. Working condition: Poor working condition causes grievances.

EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE GRIEVANCE

The importance of effective employee grievance handling was thrust into the spotlight recently, when close to 200 SMRT bus drivers from China held an illegal strike, disgruntled over their salaries and living conditions. The workers had refused to board a shuttle that was to take them to work from their dormitory. Four workers who instigated the strike were eventually prosecuted. The incident prompted the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) to issue a five-page advisory on handling employee grievances. It is unfortunate that SNEF has to make use of this incident to highlight to employers the importance of having proper employee grievance handling procedures and processes, said Stephen Lee, President, SNEF, in a press statement. He added that good employer-employee relations at the company level were the foundation of strong and effective tripartism. Without responsible employers, it is not possible to have sustainable industrial peace and harmony, which is Singapores hallmark. In addition to the advisory, SNEF recommended that employers: go beyond the symptoms to analyse root causes of grievances; be proactive in seeking employee perceptions of workplace issues; and promote positive workplace cultures. Lee called upon employers to review their employee engagement processes to strengthen employer-employee relations. The illegal strike also pointed out the importance of harmonious labour relations. The strike should not have happened. It happened because management, union and workers did not work closely enough, said a spokesperson from the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) in an email response to HRMs questions. The

incident could have been avoided if all three partners worked together, but now that it has happened, we all learned the right lessons, he added. Employee grievance handling is important and it is crucial to handle it well and properly so that work performance is not affected but more so, the person who is aggrieved can have access to the proper channels to bring the case up for managements notice, said the NTUC spokesperson. Ho Meng Kit, CEO of the Singapore Business Federation said that HR has an important role to play. In a tight labour market, it is in companies best interest to uphold enlightened and fair HR policies and practices to retain talent. It is also incumbent on employees to use proper channels to raise their work grievances. A harmonious employer-employee relationship fosters trust, loyalty and benefits for all. The incident has served as a wake-up call for employers. Hans Food and Beverage plans to share the SMRT episode as a case study to all staff during its next operations meeting, said its deputy general manager Gan Yee Chin. The HR department will send more staff, especially outlet managers, to attend a Tripartite training workshop to improve their skills in handling unhappy staff. We will also be conducting employee perception surveys regularly to gauge our work climate.

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
Grievance procedure is a formal communication between an employee and the management designed for the settlement of a grievance. The grievance procedures differ from organization to organization. 1. 2. Open door policy Step-ladder policy

OPEN DOOR POLICY: Under this policy, the aggrieved employee is free to meet the top executives of the organization and get his grievances redressed. Such a policy works well only in small organizations. However, in bigger organizations, top management executives are usually busy with other concerned matters of the company. Moreover, it is believed that open door policy is suitable for executives; operational employees may feel shy to go to top management. STEP LADDER POLICY: Under this policy, the aggrieved employee has to follow a step by step procedure for getting his grievance redressed. In this procedure, whenever an employee is confronted with a grievance, he presents his problem to his immediate supervisor. If the employee is not satisfied with superiors decision, then he discusses his grievance with the departmental head. The departmental head discusses the problem with joint grievance committees to find a solution. However, if the committee also fails to redress the grievance, then it may be referred to chief

executive. If the chief executive also fails to redress the grievance, then such a grievance is referred to voluntary arbitration where the award of arbitrator is binding on both the parties.

EFFECTIVE WAY TO GRIEVANCE HANDLING

Grievance may be any genuine or imaginary feeling of dissatisfaction or injustice which an employee experiences about his job and its nature, about the management policies and procedures. It must be expressed by the employee and brought to the notice of the management and the organization. Grievances take the form of collective disputes when they are not resolved. Also they will then lower the morale and efficiency of the employees. Unattended grievances result in frustration, dissatisfaction, low productivity, lack of interest in work, absenteeism, etc. In short, grievance arises when employees expectations are not fulfilled from the organization as a result of which a feeling of discontentment and dissatisfaction arises. This dissatisfaction must crop up from employment issues and not from personal issues. Grievance may result from the following factorsa. Improper working conditions such as strict production standards, unsafe workplace, bad relation with managers, etc. b. Irrational management policies such as overtime, transfers, demotions, inappropriate salary structure, etc. c. Violation of organizational rules and practices The manager should immediately identify all grievances and must take appropriate steps to eliminate the causes of such grievances so that the employees remain loyal and committed to their work. Effective grievance management is an essential part of personnel management. The managers should adopt the following approach to manage grievance effectively-

1. Quick action- As soon as the grievance arises, it should be identified and resolved. Training must be given to the managers to effectively and timely manage a grievance. This will lower the detrimental effects of grievance on the employees and their performance. 2. Acknowledging grievance- The manager must acknowledge the grievance put forward by the employee as manifestation of true and real feelings of the employees. Acknowledgement by the manager implies that the manager is eager to look into the complaint impartially and without any bias. This will create a conducive work environment with instances of grievance reduced. 3. Gathering facts- The managers should gather appropriate and sufficient facts explaining the grievances nature. A record of such facts must be maintained so that these can be used in later stage of grievance redressal. 4. Examining the causes of grievance- The actual cause of grievance should be identified. Accordingly remedial actions should be taken to prevent repetition of the grievance. 5. Decisioning- After identifying the causes of grievance, alternative course of actions should be thought of to manage the grievance. The effect of each course of action on the existing and future management policies and procedure should be analyzed and accordingly decision should be taken by the manager. 6. Execution and review- The manager should execute the decision quickly, ignoring the fact, that it may or may not hurt the employees concerned. After implementing the decision, a follow-up must be there to ensure that the grievance has been resolved completely and adequately. An effective grievance procedure ensures an amiable work environment because it redresses the grievance to mutual satisfaction of both the employees and the

managers. It also helps the management to frame policies and procedures acceptable to the employees. It becomes an effective medium for the employees to express t feelings, discontent and dissatisfaction openly and formally.

METHODS OF IDENTIFYING GRIEVANCES

The following methods can help the employer to identify the grievances:

1. DIRECTIVE OBSERVATION: Knowledge of human behaviour is requisite quality of every good manager. From the changed behaviour of employees, he should be able to snuff the causes of grievances. This he can do without its knowledge to the employee. This method will give general pattern of grievances. In addition to normal routine, periodic interviews with the employees, group meetings and collective bargaining are the specific occasions where direct observation can help in unfolding the grievances. 2. GRIP BOXES: The boxes (like suggestion boxes) are placed at easily accessible spots to most employees in the organisation. The employees can file anonymous complaints about their dissatisfaction in these boxes. Due to anonymity, the fear of managerial action is avoided. Moreover managements interest is also limited to the free and fair views of employees. 3. OPEN DOOR POLICY: Most democratic by nature, the policy is preached most but practiced very rarely in Indian organizations. But this method will be more useful in absence of an effective grievance procedure, otherwise the organisation will do well to have a grievance procedure. Open door policy demands that the employees, even at the lowest rank, should have easy access to the chief executive to get his grievances redressed.

4. EXIT INTERVIEW: Higher employee turnover is a problem of every organisation. Employees leave the organisation either due to dissatisfaction or for better prospects. Exit interviews may be conducted to know the reasons for leaving the job. Properly conducted exit interviews can provide significant information about the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation and can pave way for further improving the management policies for its labour force.

PRINCIPLES OR GUIDELINES FOR GRIEVANCE HANDLING

In handling grievances, a considerable amount of time must be spent in talking to employees; gathering data from them and passing on various types of information. Such talks to be most effective, should conform to definite patterns and adhere to well tested rules. The manager must seek to develop an attitude towards employees that should be helpful in gaining their confidence. The management should also display a sincere interest in the problems of employees and their constructive willingness to be to help to them with a view to gain not only their confidence but also their utmost loyal by and genuine cooperation. The procedure adopt by the management in handling the grievances must be apparent. Grievances should be handled in terms of their total effect on the organisation and not solely their immediate or individual effect.

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE IN INDIAN INDUSTRY

The 15th session of Indian Labor Conference held in 1957 emphasized the need of an established grievance procedure for the country which would be acceptable to unions as well as to management. In the 16th session of Indian Labor Conference, a model for grievance procedure was drawn up. This model helps in creation of grievance machinery. According to it, workers representatives are to be elected for a department or their union is to nominate them. Management has to specify the persons in each department who are to be approached first and the departmental heads who are supposed to be approached in the second step.

The Model Grievance Procedure specifies the details of all the steps that are to be followed while redressing grievances. These steps are:

STEP 1: In the first step the grievance is to be submitted to departmental representative, who is a representative of management. He has to give his answer within 48 hours.

STEP 2: If the departmental representative fails to provide a solution, the aggrieved employee can take his grievance to head of the department, who has to give his decision within 3 days.

STEP 3: If the aggrieved employee is not satisfied with the decision of departmental head, he can take the grievance to Grievance Committee. The Grievance Committee makes its recommendations to the manager within 7 days in the form of a report. The final decision of the management on the report of Grievance Committee must be communicated to the aggrieved employee within three days of the receipt of report. An appeal for revision of final decision can be made by the worker if he is not satisfied with it. The management must communicate its decision to the worker within 7 days.

STEP 4: If the grievance still remains unsettled, the case may be referred to voluntary arbitration.

CONCLUSION
Overall the present way of Grievance Handling. However, there are certain grievances, which cannot be addressed through the present procedure so a need for a grievance handling forum in the organization is required , 88% of the employees agree the above statement and only 22% of the employees disagree to it, By comparing these percentages, I can conclude that there is need for a grievance handling forum in the organization.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Empowerment by Arun Monappa and Mirza S. Saiyadain NRM conceptual and legal frame work by A.M.Sarma Dynamics of Industrial Relations in India by C.B. Mamaoria and S. Mamoria Human resource development by P.C. Tripathi Management and Organization Behaviour by P. Subba Rao.

INDEX

SR.NO
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Introduction

TITLE

PAGENO
1 2 3 5 6 8 9 10 12 14 17 19 20 22 23

What Makes A Grievance Mechanism Effective Meaning & Definition Types Of Grievances Steps Of The Grievance Procedure Concept Of Employee Grievances Causes Of Grievances Effective Employee Grievance Grievance Procedure Effective Way To Grievance Handling Methods Of Identifying Grievances Principles Or Guidelines For Grievance Handling Grievance Procedure In Indian Industry Conclusion Bibliography