Grievances

A grievance is an employee's formal complaint that the workspace violated a policy, a collective-bargaining agreement, or a statutory right. The Grievance file tracks the matter through the workspace's defined progression — typically Step 1 (informal), Step 2 (supervisor), Step 3 (department), and Step 4 (arbitration or executive review) — with each step's timeline, decision, and appeal clock written to a single tamper-evident ledger.

TL;DR — Open ELR → Grievances → New filing. Pick the employee, the contractual or policy article allegedly violated, and the desired remedy. The file progresses through the workspace's configured CBA / policy steps; each step has its own decision deadline and appeal window. The file closes when the parties agree to a remedy, the employee withdraws, the appeal window expires, or an arbitrator rules.

Before you start

• Confirm the applicable progression for the employee's classification. CBA-covered employees follow the CBA's grievance article; non-CBA staff follow the workspace's open-door / problem-solving policy.
• Confirm the filing deadline. Most CBAs require Step-1 filing within a fixed number of working days from the incident (commonly 10-30). Out-of-time grievances are often denied procedurally; flag immediately.
• If the matter alleges discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, cross-file the EEO case — these are not mutually exclusive. The grievance handles contractual remedies; the EEO case handles statutory remedies.

Workspace progression vs CBA progression

Open a grievance

1. 1

   Open ELR → Grievances → New filing

   The intake form opens. You're typically filing on the employee's behalf after they (or their steward) raised it.

2. 2

   Pick the grievant

   HCM lookup. The form pulls their classification, bargaining unit (if any), and the applicable progression.

3. 3

   Identify the violated article or policy

   For CBA grievances: pick the CBA article(s). For policy grievances: pick the policy. Free-text "other" is permitted but discouraged — articulating the article up front sharpens the response.

4. 4

   State the facts

   What happened, when, who was involved. The grievant's own statement attaches to this section.

5. 5

   Identify the requested remedy

   What the grievant wants: make-whole pay, reinstatement, rescind a discipline, policy clarification. Vague remedies often resolve in nothing; specific remedies focus the discussion.

6. 6

   Assign a respondent + Step-1 owner

   The respondent is typically the manager whose action is grieved. The Step-1 owner is the workspace person responsible for the first response (often the next-level supervisor).

7. 7

   Open the file

   Step 1 is now active. The decision clock starts.

Work each step

The file's Progression tab shows every step in the applicable ladder with its decision deadline.

1. 1

   Step opens automatically when the prior step concludes

   The clock starts the moment the prior step decision is recorded OR the prior step is appealed.

2. 2

   Hold the step meeting

   The owner meets with the grievant (and their representative, if any). Log the meeting in the file — date, attendees, key discussion points.

3. 3

   Record the decision

   Granted / partially granted / denied + the rationale. If granted, document the remedy applied.

4. 4

   Notify the grievant

   The decision posts to the grievant's notification channel. The appeal window starts on receipt.

5. 5

   Wait for appeal or close

   If the grievant doesn't appeal within the window, the file closes at this step. If they appeal, the next step opens automatically.

Arbitration (CBA grievances)

If a CBA grievance isn't resolved at the final pre-arbitration step, the union may invoke arbitration. The file picks up the arbitrator selection + scheduling + hearing tracking.

Common gotchas

• "The grievance is out of time but I want to consider it on the merits." Recording a timeliness waiver requires the union's (or policy's) express acceptance. Don't waive timeliness silently — it becomes precedent.
• "The respondent manager wants to retaliate." Document the workspace's anti-retaliation policy explicitly to the manager. Any adverse action against the grievant during the pendency of the grievance is presumptively retaliatory. Loop in counsel before any performance action.
• "The grievant is also filing an EEO complaint." Open both files; link them. The grievance pursues contractual relief; the EEO case pursues statutory relief. Settlement of one doesn't necessarily settle the other unless the release is drafted to.
• "The arbitrator's award is wildly outside the CBA." Judicial review of CBA awards is extremely narrow (the Steelworkers Trilogy standard). Talk to counsel about whether to challenge; the bar is arbitrator went outside their authority, not "we disagree".
• "We settled at Step 2 with a payout but I want to keep the file open for tracking." Close the file with the settlement recorded. Keeping it artificially open distorts the workspace's grievance metrics and the audit record.

Troubleshooting

How this is recorded

The grievance file is its own append-only ledger: every step opening, meeting, decision, notification, appeal, arbitration filing, and final award. The ledger is the artifact a union, arbitrator, or court relies on to confirm the workspace followed contractual due process. Retention follows the CBA's records-keeping clause AND the workspace's audit-log retention floor, whichever is longer.