Chapter 11 - Administering the employment relationship. The main contents of the chapter consist of the following: The grievance procedure, the historical evolution of grievance arbitration, the functions of grievance procedures and arbitration, how arbitration works, the connections between grievance, evaluating the performance of the grievance, | Chapter 11 Administering the Employment Relationship McGraw Hill Irwin An Introduction to Collective Bargaining amp Industrial Relations 4e Copyright 2008 The McGraw Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved. 1 3 11 3 The Grievance Procedure The grievance procedure specifies a series of steps to resolve a worker s complaint that management has not followed the agreement Grievances are most often precipitated by the complaint of an employee against a supervisor Steps of an employee initiated grievance procedure typically include Step 1. Employee discusses grievance with the supervisor Step 2. Grievance put into writing and parties discuss the grievance management puts response in writing Step 3. If unsuccessful the grievance is appealed Step 4. Union decides whether to appeal to arbitration 1 4 11 4 The Reasons Why Grievances Are Filed Employee discipline is a common source of grievances The employee may feel that he she did not violate the contract or that the discipline is too harsh A contract simply cannot specify what is to happen under all circumstances Unions and management prefer a grievance procedure rather than trying to stipulate all potential issues of future dispute Grievance filings can be tactical to show union discontent regarding an issue This will tend to rally the employees and increase future bargaining leverage 1 5 11 5 The Historical Evolution of Grievance Arbitration The Spread of Arbitration The advocacy of the War Labor Board during WWII helped grievance arbitration to become a common practice Later Taft Hartley embedded grievance arbitration in national labor policy Court Encouragement of Arbitration A series of Supreme Court decisions known as the Steelworkers trilogy encouraged the use of arbitration and insulated arbitration awards from judicial review 1 6 11 6 Judicial Deference to Arbitration Court cases continued the basic principle of judicial deference in the Steelworkers trilogy and added modifications In the Collyer decision of 1971
