Page 189 - DMGT516_LABOUR_LEGISLATIONS

Labour Legislations

Notes For our purpose, in this lesson grievance has a narrow perspective; it is concerned with the
interpretation of a contract or a award as applied to an individual or a few employees.

Dissatisfaction, Complaint and Grievance

According to Pigors and Myers, and three terms 'dissatisfaction', 'complaint', and 'grievance'
indicate the various forms and stages of employee dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is "anything
that disturbs an employee, whether or not he expresses his unrest in words." A complaint is a
'spoken or written dissatisfaction, brought to the attention of the supervisor and the shop
steward'. A grievance is simply a "complaint that has been ignored, overridden, or dismissed
without due consideration".
A grievance in the context of a business organisation is always expressed either verbally or in
writing. If the discontent remains unexpressed, it does not constitute grievance for the reason
that the management cannot take note of such subliminal process, which are not ventilated. This
does not mean that the management should not be concerned at all with unexpressed discontent.
Neverthless, the fact remains that in an organizational setting such unexpressed grievance are
not capable of being handled through the grievance procedure. Thus the grievance is more
formal in character than a complaint. While a complaint can be either oral or written, a grievance
is always in writing. Un-redressed, piled-up individual grievances may often assume the form
of industrial disputes, thereby attracting the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 or
leading to a snap industrial action such as work stoppages, violence or disorderly behavior.

Why Grievances?

Grievances may occur for a variety of reasons:

1. Economic: Wage fixation, wage computation, overtime, bonus, etc. Employees feel they
are getting less than they ought to get.
2. Work Environment: Poor working conditions, defective equipment and machinery, tools,
materials, etc.
3. Supervision: Disposition of the boss towards the employee. Perceived notions of favoritism,
nepotism, bias etc.
4. Work Group: Strained relations or incompatibility with peers. Feeling of neglect and
victimization.

5. Work Organisation: Rigid and unfair rules too much or too less work responsibility lack
of recognition, etc.

!

Caution S. Chandra's study on grievance procedure and practices revealed the following
as some of the main causes of employee grievances:
1. Amenities
2. Compensation
3. Conditions of work

4. Continuity of service
5. Disciplinary action
6. Fines

184 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY