Harassment or Grievance - Which One?

njjel

An emloyee has filed a grievance claiming hostile working conditions. The grievance does not indicate what the hostile working conditions are however a day or two previous to the grievance being filed a supervisor received a detailed letter from one employee claiming hostile working conditions against another employee. I'm thinking this is one in the same. My question is that I feel this is not a matter for a union grievance venue but rather a matter for our company harassment policy. However, as stated in another posting on this forum, this type of hostile working conditions is not protected under Title VII. Still the matter needs to be dealth with. Apparently there is a personality conflict between two employees (one is the union president) that has gotten out of hand. My thought is to deny the grievance as it is not covered under the contact and handle the personality problem with the two ee's. Any thoughts?

Hunter1

I like to write my grievance procedures such that the employee has to cite the specific section of the labor agreement which has been violated. You might look to your grievance procedure to see if this is the case. In any case, it sounds more like a ploicy issue rather than a grievance.

Don D

I agree with Hunter in that the last time I participated in negotiations, we specifically included in the contract language that forces the grievance to not only state which non-bargaining unit employee(s) is being complained about, but which contract sections have been violated, right down to the specific clause and section. In your case, I think I would return the grievance as denied with my narrative that says it's denied because the grievance is vague and there is no specific information on which the company can proceed. Then watch the timelines closely and hope it disappears; but if not, let it resurrect and deal with it. More than likely the employee simply wants a personal forum in which to air non-specific vague gripes and the company wants to avoid that I'm sure. One day the union will learn, perhaps, that there is no rule or law or contract that will require that all the workforce respect each other, like each other and cater to the whims of each other.

Whatever

I believe the first step should be to investigate. Thinking that the two complaints are one and the same is different from knowing it as a fact. If you deny the grievance without having tried to determine the facts, you'll could end up with bigger problems.

LindaS

I agree with Don - send the grievance back denied and explain that you cannot answer a grievance without knowing SPECIFICALLY what is being grieved. Without specifics, you can't answer it nor can you do a proper investigation. As far as the letter your supervisor received, was it signed by the employee or was it anonymous? If it was signed, call the employee into a meeting and begin an investigation. If it was anonymous, I don't think there is much you can do, outside of talking to everyone in the department which could prove very time consuming. Without specific information to work from, your hands are tied.