Employee Grievance:
Definition, Types, Examples & Comparison

An employee grievance is a formal complaint filed by an employee against their employer regarding working conditions, treatment, or other aspects of employment that the employee believes violate their rights under an employment contract, collective agreement, company policy, or applicable law. Grievances provide employees with a structured channel to voice concerns about workplace issues ranging from unfair treatment and discrimination to safety violations and compensation disputes.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines a grievance as the belief of one or more workers that their employer has not respected their rights as established in provisions of an applicable collective agreement or individual contract of employment, work rules, laws, or the custom or practice of the workplace, industry, or occupation. A grievance can be raised by the employee directly or by a third party, including a community member, governmental organization, or NGO.

Grievances are addressed through grievance mechanisms, which outline the process for how a grievance is filed and handled and the responsibilities of each party throughout the process. These mechanisms are often outlined in binding documents such as collective bargaining agreements or other agreements between workers, employers, and buyer companies.

Related terms: grievance procedure, grievance mechanism, collective bargaining agreement, workplace complaint

Employee grievances are categorized into 6 primary types based on the nature of the complaint:

• Work conditions: These relate to the physical conditions of the workplace, including safety standards, equipment quality, workspace environment, and compliance with health and safety regulations.
• Compensation and benefits: These grievances involve disputes over earnings, salary adjustments, overtime pay, bonuses, and other compensation issues, as well as benefits like health insurance, retirement plans, and vacation entitlements.
• Discrimination and harassment: Complaints related to unfair treatment based on gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected characteristic fall into this category. It also includes all forms of harassment, whether sexual, verbal, or psychological.
• Work-life balance: This category involves concerns over excessive overtime, inflexible work schedules, insufficient breaks, and anything else that affects an employee's ability to balance work with personal life.
• Management and supervision: Concerns related to management practices, including lack of communication, poor management style, favoritism, lack of support, or abuse of authority.
• Interpersonal conflicts: Problems between colleagues or employees and management that affect the working environment. This can include personality clashes, communication problems, or disputes over responsibilities.

Grievances can be filed for contract violations, violations of collective bargaining agreements, or other policy violations. In unionized workplaces, there is usually a strict procedure for filing grievances tracked by the labor union and a grievance representative. In non-union workplaces, formal grievance procedures may also be in place to help management identify problems within the organization and provide employees with a communication channel to management while avoiding adversarial relationships.

The grievance procedure is a structured, multi-step process for documenting, presenting, and resolving workplace disputes. Most grievance procedures follow 5 standard steps that move up the chain of command:

1. Informal meeting: The employee and a steward meet with the employee's immediate supervisor to discuss the matter in an attempt to find an expeditious resolution. If this informal discussion provides no resolution, formal steps are initiated with the filing of a written grievance.
2. Supervisor meeting and documentation: This step involves a meeting between the steward—usually accompanied by the employee—and the employee's supervisor to discuss the grievance. If the grievance cannot be resolved at this step, most agreements require that the grievance be filed in writing and signed by the grievant within a specified number of days of the incident.
3. Escalation to management: The next step involves a meeting to discuss the grievance at a higher level of management authority—typically between the union's business agent or grievance committee members and designated management representatives.
4. Escalation to top company representatives: The last step before referral to arbitration typically involves discussions between full-time union officers or representatives of the international union and top company management.
5. Referral to arbitration: Referral to an arbitrator for a decision is the final step in grievance procedures. The arbitrator, a neutral third party selected jointly by the two parties, acts as a judge interpreting the meaning and intent of the contract. The arbitrator's decision is generally final and binding.

Most contracts require the employer to prepare written responses after each processing step within a specified number of days. Contracts usually require the parties to observe all processing steps before resorting to arbitration, although steps can be bypassed if both parties agree or if the contract allows exceptions for policy grievances, critical disputes, or situations where grievance procedures would be futile.

Some contracts provide for an intermediate stage before arbitration called grievance mediation, where parties discuss the grievance with a mediator who acts as an impartial third party. The mediator can suggest ways of resolving the dispute but does not make findings of fact and cannot impose a settlement on the parties.

Effective grievance mechanisms enable workers and populations affected by a company's activities to seek redress for violations of their rights. According to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, effective grievance mechanisms possess 7 key characteristics:

• Legitimate: Enabling trust from the stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended and being accountable for the fair conduct of grievance processes.
• Accessible: Being known to all stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended and providing adequate assistance for those who may face barriers to access.
• Predictable: Providing a clear and known procedure with an indicative time frame for each stage and clarity on the types of process and outcome available and the means of monitoring implementation.
• Transparent: Keeping parties to a grievance informed about its progress and providing sufficient information about the mechanism's performance to build confidence in its effectiveness and meet any public interest at stake.
• Rights-Compatible: Ensuring that outcomes and remedies accord with internationally recognized human rights.
• A Source of Continuous Learning: Drawing on relevant measures to identify lessons for improving the mechanism and preventing future grievances and harms.
• Based on Engagement and Dialogue: Consulting the stakeholder groups for whose use they are intended on their design and performance and focusing on dialogue as the means to address and resolve grievances.

Effective grievance mechanisms are confidential and secure, allowing workers to file complaints without fearing reprisal. They have a clearly outlined process for how complaints will be handled, include thorough investigations of complaints, and have procedures for securing remediation when grievances are found to have merit. Once remedy is developed in a corrective action plan (CAP), the remediation outcomes should be verified by an independent third party.

Over time, companies should evaluate the effectiveness of grievance mechanisms using 5 good practices for evaluation:

• Uptake: Companies should track the number of grievances submitted over time, while noting that lower grievance rates may not reflect lower prevalence of labor due diligence gaps.
• Themes: Grievance data analysis pinpoints priority areas for intervention. The absence of certain types of grievances—including everyday issues—may also be a risk indicator.
• Accessibility: Companies should assess whether all workers have access and ability to submit grievances.
• Confidentiality: Companies should examine any standard operating procedures that relate to grievance confidentiality, whistleblower protections, and reprisals. Testing grievance mechanisms through third-party auditing is another good practice.
• Grievance resolution rate: Companies should measure the proportion of grievances that are satisfactorily remediated and how long they take to close.

Employee grievances span a range of workplace issues. Here are 4 common examples:

• Discrimination: An employee raises a grievance as they feel they have been consistently overlooked for promotions due to their age, despite having comparable qualifications and performance levels to other colleagues who received promotions.
• Interpersonal conflicts: An employee files a grievance as they feel unfairly treated by their supervisor, who frequently criticizes them in front of peers and assigns them less desirable tasks compared to others in the same team.
• Working conditions: An employee files a grievance claiming the working conditions in the company warehouse are unsafe. They cite inadequate lighting and malfunctioning equipment, which they believe pose a safety risk to them and their colleagues.
• Pay and benefits: An employee raises a grievance after discovering they are being paid significantly less than new hires with similar roles and qualifications. The employee contends that this pay discrepancy is unfair and demotivating, particularly since they have been with the company for several years and have consistently received positive performance reviews.

It is critical to adhere to strict deadlines when preparing and filing a grievance. Many situations require action within a set number of days, and missing the deadline may result in the loss of opportunity to file a grievance. One-time issues and recurring issues have different deadlines for differing actions.

A typical formal grievance timeline follows this structure:

• Informal Discussion: The excluded employee or the employee's representative discusses the grievance with the employee's immediate supervisor. If the grievance is not settled within 5 work days, a written grievance may be filed.
• Formal Grievance – Level 1: A formal grievance may be filed not later than 10 work days after the event or circumstances occasioning the grievance. The first level of review responds to the grievance in writing within 10 work days after the receipt of the formal grievance.
• Formal Grievance – Level 2: The grievant may appeal the decision of the first level within 10 work days after receipt of the response or date response was due. Within 15 work days after receipt of the appealed grievance, the person designated by the appointing power as the second level of review responds in writing to the grievance.
• Formal Grievance – Level 3: The grievant may appeal the decision of the second level within 10 work days after receipt of the response or date response was due to the appointing power or designee. Within 15 work days after the receipt of the appeal, the appointing power or designee responds in writing to the grievance.
• Formal Grievance – Level 4: The grievant may appeal the decision of the third level within 10 work days after the receipt of the response or date response was due to the Director, Department of Personnel Administration or designee. Within 20 work days the Director or designee responds in writing to the grievance.

The decision becomes final 30 days after service by the Director of a copy of the decision upon the parties to the proceeding, unless a proper application for rehearing is made. Within 30 days after service of a copy of the decision, any party may file a written petition for rehearing with the Director.

An employee grievance policy should include 8 essential components to provide employees and HR departments with the information needed to manage grievances effectively:

1. Definition of grievance: The policy should clearly define what constitutes a grievance. This could include issues like harassment, discrimination, unfair treatment, safety concerns, and violations of company policies.
2. Procedures for filing a grievance: Clarify what steps employees must take when filing a grievance, including any evidence or information they must provide and whom to contact (typically a supervisor or HR representative).
3. Confidentiality: Assurance that all grievance submissions will be handled discreetly to protect the privacy of those involved.
4. Investigation process: What process will the company go through to evaluate and respond to the grievance? Who should be involved in that process? Clearly lay it out as part of your grievance policy.
5. Resolution and decision-making: Provide information on how decisions will be made following the investigation and what kind of resolutions can be expected. Ensure the policy includes a commitment to treating all employees fairly and recognition that they all have the same right to have their grievances taken seriously.
6. Appeals process: If an employee is dissatisfied with the outcome of an investigation, the policy should outline how they can appeal the decision and the procedures involved in the appeals process.
7. Anti-retaliation policy: Note that the company prohibits retaliation against any employee who files a grievance, participates in an investigation, or supports another employee in their grievance.
8. Forms: The director shall prescribe a standard excluded grievance form and any additional forms to be used in processing grievances.

The purpose of grievance procedures is to help management identify problems within the organization and provide employees with a communication channel to management, while also avoiding adversarial relationships between management and employees. The employee and their representative may be authorized a reasonable amount of work time, as determined by the appointing power, to prepare and present a grievance.

An employee grievance is often compared to 3 related workplace dispute concepts:

Employee Grievance vs. Informal Complaint

An informal complaint is a verbal expression of dissatisfaction that an employee discusses with their immediate supervisor before initiating formal procedures. If the informal discussion provides no resolution within the specified timeframe (typically 5 work days), the complaint can escalate to a formal written grievance. Informal complaints do not create a formal paper trail, while grievances require written documentation and trigger the structured grievance procedure.

Employee Grievance vs. Appeal

Appeals address specific employment actions that have already occurred, such as layoff, transfer, petitions to set aside resignation, or appeals for reinstatement after automatic resignation. These disputes are filed directly with the director in accordance with specific time limits prescribed by applicable statute. Grievances, by contrast, address ongoing working conditions, treatment, or policy violations that the employee believes violate their rights. Appeals may be assigned to a hearing officer for hearing or investigation, while grievances follow the multi-step grievance procedure through levels of management.

Employee Grievance vs. Labor Arbitration

A grievance is the initial formal complaint filed by an employee, while labor arbitration is the final step in the grievance resolution process. In grievance arbitration, an arbitrator—a neutral third party selected jointly by both parties—acts as a judge interpreting the meaning and intent of the contract. The decision as to whether to refer the grievance to arbitration is made by the union and not the aggrieved employee. The arbitrator's decision is generally final and binding, whereas grievance procedures involve multiple opportunities for resolution before reaching arbitration.