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Grievances Defined
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A grievance is any complaint, dissatisfaction or feeling of injustice suffered by an employee(s) in relation to his/her employment relationship caused by an actual or perceived infringement of rights as employee(s).
The grievance procedure cannot be used for dissatisfaction on matters of interest. Thus, it may not be used to address:
- unfair labour practices,
- salary or wage issues,
- demands for other benefits, or
- as an appeal mechanism following a disciplinary hearing.
A grievance procedure is a process to ensure that grievances (individual/group) are considered and resolved as close as possible to the point of origin and as speedily (but within the time frames specified) as practical.
The grievance process allows the employer to detect problems that employees experience within the organisation before it grows to such an extent that the organisation and the employee is affected negatively. For example, an employee detects that he/she works longer hours and receives less payment as those working lesser hours. Such a situation, when not dealt with at a grievance level, will eventually be solved at the CCMA or other third-party intervention. It can also develop into disciplinary problems for the organisation.
Click here to view a video on grievances.
