Grievances relate to problems of interpretation or perceived nonfulfillment of one’s expectations from the organization. A grievance is a complaint of one or more workers concerning the organization. It can be related to wages, conditions of work, leave, transfer, overtime, promotion, seniority, job assignment, and termination of service.

Causes of Grievances:

An employee is dissatisfied and harbors a grievance when he feels there has been an infringement of his rights and that his interests have been jeopardized. This sense of grievance generally arises out of misinterpretation or misapplication of company policies and practices. Grievances mostly arise out of the following reasons:

Concerning wages Demand for individual adjustment; the worker feels that he is not paid fully. Complaints about incentives; piece rates are too low or too complicated. Mistakes in calculating the wages of the workers;

Concerning supervision Complaints against discipline; and inadequate instructions given for job performance.

General working conditions: Unhygienic working conditions Poor production standards Non availability of tools, materials, and types of equipment.

Methods of Understanding Employee Grievances:

• Exit interview: Interviewing employees who have decided to quit the company could reveal much about what is not visible to the naked eye. These are very useful as the company can come to know what problems are been faced by the employees.
• Opinion surveys: A survey could be undertaken to find out how employees feel about the company about the work, and their colleagues.
• Gripe boxes: Gripe boxes may be kept at prominent locations in the factory. lodging anonymous complaints about any aspect relating to work. Since the person complaining need not reveal his identity, he can reveal his feelings of injustice or discontent fairly and without any fear of victimization.
• Open door policy: This is a kind of walk-in interview or meeting with the manager when the employee can express his feelings about any work-related grievance. The manager can cross-check the details of the complaint through various means at his disposal.
• Observation: In this grievance identification technique grievances are not heard from the aggrieved employee directly, rather the manager or the immediate supervisor constantly tracks the behavior of the employees working under him.

The Model Grievance Procedure was formulated in pursuance to the Code of discipline adopted by the 16^th Session of the Indian Labour Conference in 1958. Most of the grievance procedures now a day are built around the Model Grievance Procedure with certain changes to suit the size and special requirements of an enterprise.

The model Grievance Procedure provides for five successive time-bound steps. These are as under:

1. An aggrieved employee shall first present his grievance verbally in person to the officer designated by the Management for this An answer shall be given to him within 48 hours of the presentation of the complaint.
2. If the worker is not satisfied with the decision of this officer or fails to receive an answer within the stipulated period, he shall in person or by his departmental representative, if required, present his grievance to the head of the department designated by the management for this And he will get the answer within 3 days of the presentation of his grievance.
3. If the decision of the departmental head is unsatisfactory, the aggrieved worker may request the forwarding of his grievance to the Grievance Committee, which shall make its recommendations to the management within 7 days of the worker’s request. The final decision of the management shall be communicated to the worker within the stipulated period (3 days) by the Personnel Officer.
4. A revision of his grievance can be done if the decision is not The management shall communicate its decision within a week.
5. If no agreement is possible the union and the Management may refer the grievance to voluntary arbitration within a week from the date of receipt by the worker of the management’s

In the above-mentioned procedure the following points should be noted:

• Calculating the various time intervals under the above clauses, holidays shall not be included.
• The Management shall provide the necessary clerical and other assistance for the smooth functioning of the grievance machinery.
• During the working time, the concerned person may go for enquiry with the Labor/personnel Officer, provided the he has taken permission from his supervisor. Hence he may not suffer any loss of payment.