Section: 1

Summer- 2022
Course Code: HRM 610
Course Name: Industrial Relations
Department of Business Administration

Submitted to:
Professor Dr. Md. Serajul Islam
Professor & Dean
Department of Business Administration
Southeast Business School
Southeast University

Submitted by:
Md. Rashadul Islam
ID: 2021210004092

Date of Submission: 14th October, 2022

Page 1 of 9
 ASSIGNMENT TOPICS

1. (A). what are the grievances…?

(B). Explain different causes of grievances.

2. Explain the different effect of grievances.

3. As a manager how would you discover grievances in your organization?
4. Explain the different steps in grievance handling.

Page 2 of 9
Answer: 1 (A). what are the grievances…?

In the context of employee-employer relations, the term “grievance” usually relates to an

employee’s allegation of a violation of workplace policy or contract terms.
For a unionized workplace, this usually comes up in the context of an employee
complaint that the terms of the collective bargaining agreement are not being met. In the
context of a nonunionized workplace, a grievance could mean any complaint about
noncompliance with work policies or related regulations.
In short, a grievance is a formal employee complaint. Usually this comes about when an
employee feels he or she has been negatively affected by the employer not holding up
the terms (or misapplying the terms) of the employment agreement. A grievance could
come from an individual or a group, and it could relate to a specific contract term or it
could be related to violations of the collective bargaining agreement or other employer
policies.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines a grievance as a complaint of one

or more workers with respect to wages and allowances, conditions of work and
interpretation of service conditions covering such areas as overtime, leave, transfer,
promotion, seniority, job assignment and termination of service.

Grievances may be raised by individuals or registered by multiple members of

staff, which is known as a collective grievance.

The types of grievances raised in the workplace typically stem from interpersonal issues
such as discrimination, bullying and harassment, as well as discontent regarding pay
and benefits, workload and working conditions.

Individual grievances are raised by a single member of staff. The grievance will
relate to an aspect of their personal employment — for example, they may be
experiencing an ongoing issue such as dissatisfaction regarding their personal pay or
benefits, or feel that their role presents unreasonable challenges, i.e. they may have a
disability for which reasonable adjustments have not been made.

Collective grievances are grievances raised by more than one member of staff. If
two or more employees raise the same issue with management, the collective grievance
must be signed by all involved and submitted in written form. The procedure for
following up a collective grievance is generally similar to that which is recommended in
the event of an individual grievance, and usually involves conducting an investigation to
assess the situation(s) leading to its submission, followed by meetings focused on
reaching a resolution.

Page 3 of 9
Answer 1 (B). Explain different causes of grievances.

Grievances generally arise from the day-do-day working relations in the undertaking,
usually a employee or trade union protest against an act or omission or management
that is considered to violate worker’s rights. There are certainly some of the causes that
can lead to grievance. Some of them are listed below:

Economic manners: it’s an effective motivator for the staffs almost all staffs get
motivated for good amount of wages and other relative facilities and some factors are
given below:

 Wage fixation and revision

 Payment of overtime
 Inadequate bonus
 Demand for welfare and equipment’s
 Incentive
 Allowances
 Increments

Working environment: an fulfill environment means so many thing for each staff,
they always wants a perfect and wonderful work place for them and to create a
manageable work place, company has to be persuade, and some effective steps are:

 Poor working conditions

 Faulty machines and equipment’s
 Attitude of supervisor
 Behavior of top management
 Favoritism and nepotism
 Strained relations
 Excessive discipline
 Defective promotion
 Lay off and retrenchment
 Inadequate health and safety devices

Supervision: some staffs likes to take responsibilities in different situation, specially,

project management, promotion, and other exiting activities, its attributed by the interest
of the individual staffs, and supervisory is also can be a motivator.

Work group:

 Many employees are unable to adjust with colleagues

 Suffer from feeling of neglect
 Victimization an object of ridicule and humiliation.

Page 4 of 9
Work Group: Strained relations or incompatibility with colleagues. Feeling of neglect,
ostracism and victimization.

Work organization: Rigid and unfair rules, too much or too less responsibility, work
overload or under load both qualitative as well as quantitative, lack of work
appreciation / recognition.

Miscellaneous: These may be issues relating to certain violations in respect of

promotions, safety methods, transfer, disciplinary rules, fines, granting leaves, medical
facilities, etc.

Grievances typically could arise because of a variety of reasons:-

1. Grievances Resulting from Working Conditions 2. Grievances Resulting from

Personal Maladjustment 3. Grievances Resulting from Management Policy 4.
Grievances Resulting from Alleged Violation 5. Grievances Resulting during
Concerning Wages 6. Grievances Resulting during Supervision 7. Poor Working
Environment 8. Poor Quality of Manager 9. Unfair Practices 10. Work Overload 11.
Favoritism 12. Disciplinary Actions.

Answer: 2. Explain the different effect of grievances.

A dissatisfied and unhappy employee will not be able to perform to the best of his
ability. His mind will be preoccupied with the things that are bothering him which leads
to a lack of focus on his current job in hand. It leads to a drop in productivity and
efficiency of the employee and the organization as a whole.

Below are some of the effects of employee grievance:

 Demotivated Staff
 Low Productivity
 Labor Unrest
 Absenteeism
 High Rate of Attrition
 Strains the Superior-Subordinate Relationships
 Reduces Employee Morale and Commitment
 Increase in Wastage and Cost

Demotivated Staff

If there is no corrective action taken when an employee approaches with a complaint

regarding something that is troubling him at the workplace, he may end up feeling

Page 5 of 9
frustrated and demotivated. A demotivated employee losses his interest in his work or
job assigned. He works only for the sake of wages or salaries.

Low Productivity

If the grievance is not sought out in proper time or as and when it arises employees
become dissatisfied and will not work to their full potential which leads to low
productivity overall.

Labor Unrest

Distressed employees if not handled properly eventually can even get violent which will
cause heavy damage to the company.

Absenteeism

Delay or neglect in solving the problem of the employee will kill the drive in him to report
to work every day. This may cause an unwanted increase in absence rate.

High Rate of Attrition

Attrition rate refers to the number of people leaving an organization over a period of
time. If an employee is unhappy with the organizations working conditions, culture etc,
the organization may end up eventually losing the employee to its competitors in the
industry.

Strains the Superior-Subordinate Relationships

Once disciplinary action is taken against a subordinate it strains the relationship

between the superior and him as he feels that the action must be taken as per
superiors’ recommendation or with his consent and knowledge.

Reduces Employee Morale and Commitment

An unattended grievance of an employee may make him feel that he is been taken for
granted by the organization. His morale and faith in the organization may come down
tremendously and he may not feel committed to the organization anymore.

Increase in Wastage and Cost

With an occupied mind the employee may not be able to focus in utilizing the factors of
production to the optimum level, this might lead to wastage of materials and lead to high
costs.

Page 6 of 9
Answer: 3. As a manager how would you discover grievances in your
organization?
The understanding of grievances is important in handling them. As a manager I have to
follow some of the ways to discover grievances are as follows:

Grievances can be uncovered in a number of ways. Gossip and grapevine offer vital
clues about employee grievances. Ripe boxes, open-door policies, periodic interview,
and exit survey could also be undertaken to uncover the mystery surrounding
grievances.

1. Observation:

As a manager I can usually track the behavior of people working under of me. If a
particular employee is not getting along with people, showing carelessness, reckless-
ness, or indifference to commands, reporting late for work, or remaining absent, the
signals are fairly obvious. Since the supervisor is close to the scene of action, they can
always find out such unusual behaviors and report promptly.

2. Grievance procedure:

A systematic grievance procedure is best means to highlight employee dissatisfaction at

various levels. Management, to this end, must encourage employees to use it whenever
they have anything to say. In the absence of such a procedure, grievances pile up and
burst up in violent forms at a future date.

3. Gripe boxes:

A gripe box may be kept at prominent locations in the organization for lodging
anonymous complaints pertaining to any aspect relating to work. Since the complaint
need not reveal their identity, employees can express their feelings of injustice or
discontent frankly and without any fear of victimization.

4. Open-door policy:

This is a kind of walk-in-meeting with the manager when employees can express their
feelings openly about any work-related grievance. The manager can cross-check the
details of the complaint through various means at their disposal.

5. Exit interview:

Employees usually leave their current jobs due to dissatisfaction or better prospects
outside. If the manager tries sincerely through an exit interview, they might be able to
find out the real reasons why the employee is leaving the organization. To elicit valuable

Page 7 of 9
information, the manager must encourage the employee to give a correct picture to
rectify the mistakes promptly.

6. Opinion surveys:

Surveys may be conducted periodically to elicit the opinions of employees about the
organization and its policies.

Answer: 4. Explain the different steps in grievance handling.

Grievance affects not only the employee and the manager but also the organization as
a whole. The grievance procedure has to be carefully designed and implemented as it
deals with human sentiments.

Below steps should be followed to redress the grievance for the smooth functioning of
the organization.

 Acknowledge and understand grievance

 Gathering facts and data
 Analysis of the grievance
 Deriving a solution
 Redressed
 Execution and Follow up

Acknowledge and understand grievance

The first step in grievance handling is to timely acknowledge the problems before they
turn into actual grievances through several means such as:

 Observation: Through observation, a manager/supervisor can easily track the

behavior of people working under him. He can easily find out the unusual
behavior and prepare report accordingly.
 Opinion surveys: Periodical interviews, group meetings, collective bargaining
sessions etc. with the workers are also helpful in knowing employee discontent
before it becomes a grievance.
 Gripe boxes: It is a box in which employees can drop their complaints.
Employees do not have to disclose their identity while expressing their feelings of
injustice or discontent.
 Exit interviews: Employees usually leave their current jobs due to dissatisfaction
regarding some areas at work. Exit interviews, conducted properly, can provide
important information about employee’s grievances.

Page 8 of 9
  Open door policy: This policy is useful in keeping touch with the employee’s
feelings as some organizations extend a general invitation to their employees to
talk over their grievances in the manager’s room.

Gathering facts and data

The next step is to collect facts and data about the grievance from all the parties
involved. Everyone’s opinion should be given equal importance and no fact should be
neglected or ignored

Analysis of the grievance

The problem should be analyzed on the basis of the facts and data received after taking
into consideration the economic, social, psychological and legal issues involved in them.

Deriving a solution

After analyzing all the facts and data, different alternative solutions to the problem
should be discussed and the best solution should be selected.

Redressed

The grievance should be redressed by promptly putting into action the best solution
selected. The employee should be relieved of the stress and discontent as soon as
possible.

Execution and Follow up

Once the solution is executed and implemented, there should be a timely follow up
registering the employee’s reaction to the decision. Also, it should be checked time and
again whether the issue has been properly closed and it should be made sure that it
does not reoccur.

--------------------------------X-------------------------------

Page 9 of 9