Labor Relations Fundamentals for Community College Districts

T HE G RIEVANCE P ROCESS

Section 6

A. W HAT I S A G RIEVANCE ? The parties define what constitutes a grievance in the collective bargaining agreement. A grievance is typically a complaint by an employee, group of employees or an employee organization alleging that a district has violated a specific provision of the CBA; however, some grievance procedures include such broad definitions to include alleged violations of board policy, procedure, written rule or other aspect of the labor relationship. A complaint by an employee or union may or may not qualify as a “grievance” based on the definition stated in the grievance procedure. Accordingly, it is imperative that the parties first look to the grievance definition to determine if an issue (complaint) is covered by the grievance procedure (“grievable”). Community college districts have multiple avenues for resolving a wide variety of problems, including procedures for resolving issues that do not arise from the collective bargaining relationship. In most of these systems of problem solving, the supervisor is the first management person who must deal directly with the aggrieved employee and attempt to resolve the problem. The success of the supervisor in handling grievances will depend upon his/her knowledge of technical problems, knowledge of the labor agreement, and human relations skills in dealing with the employee and/or the union representative. B. W HAT I S A G RIEVANCE P ROCEDURE ? Some districts have merit systems, through which an employee can appeal decisions concerning appointment, promotion, reclassification, discipline, discharge and change of status, where these areas come under the jurisdiction of a personnel commission or personnel board. To deal with grievances which do not fit into the above categories, a number of districts have developed an appeal procedure whereby disputes concerning district rules can be submitted to successively higher levels of management, with top management or a committee that may include employee relations representatives, making the final decision. Where a district has a CBA with an employee organization, a negotiated grievance procedure also exists, often ending in third-party arbitration. A negotiated grievance procedure is one that management and the employee organization have worked out together, and is included as a provision in the agreement. It is a formal appeals system through which an employee or organization can protest an action of management. It usually consists of a series of steps through which an employee can present his/her grievance to increasingly higher levels of management for resolution. The procedures define what constitutes a grievance, identify who can file a grievance and appeal through the various steps, and identify time limits for each grievance step and response. Depending on the definition of what constitutes a grievance, procedures will open the lower levels of the grievance channels to all

Labor Relations Fundamentals for Community College Districts © 2019 (c) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 31