Employee Grievances, Collective Bargaining, and Workplace Benefits

Introduction to Employee Grievances

Though most people usually have satisfactory relationships with their employers, a significant percentage of employees often have some sort of complaint or grievance against their employers. A grievance is defined as a feeling of discontent, while a complaint, though used interchangeably with a grievance, refers to a less deep-rooted grievance. When an employee has a grievance, the normal procedure is to seek some sort of remediation from management regarding the problem he or she is experiencing. However, the reasons behind reported grievances can be either real or fabricated.

For example, a real grievance may be caused by a wage cut or an increase in working hours, while a false or imaginary grievance may arise when an employer decides to closely monitor a staff member whom he or she feels is not performing optimally. If the employer does not communicate this intention effectively, the employee under scrutiny might infer that the employer is overbearing or that he or she is being unfairly targeted. Such a grievance would not be real, since it is based on imaginary assumptions and perceptions (Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices, 2013).

Reasons for Employee Grievances

A grievance must always concern issues that are work-related or covered under the employer-employee relationship. Any non-employment issue cannot be considered a genuine grievance (Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices, 2013).

The majority of grievances and complaints are usually related to salaries and benefits. Grievances related to pay and benefits may include: the need for higher pay; the eligibility requirements for pay increases; harmonization of pay within an organization or between organizations operating in the same industry; and the inclusion or exclusion of certain pay benefits. Another common workplace grievance concerns workloads. There are many cases of employees working long hours without breaks or extra pay. In other situations, companies have been known to dismiss employees and redistribute the work previously performed by those employees to remaining staff. Such cases often lead to employee dissatisfaction and frustration.

Implementation of Collective Bargaining and Arbitration

The work environment is another common source of grievance. Despite government legislation and institutional regulations, some workplaces still have environments that are unclean, unsafe, or not conducive to the type of work being performed there. Finally, an employee may have a complaint regarding unfair labor practices by either the employer or the union. An unfair labor practice could include discrimination based on race or sex, or the use of one's power to obtain cooperation unfairly — usually through coercion (Study.com, 2003–2016).

According to West's Encyclopedia of American Law (2005), collective bargaining is the process of negotiations between an employer and a workers' union in order to settle an employment-related dispute between the two parties. The main objective of entering into collective bargaining negotiations is to reach a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). A CBA normally encompasses pay, benefits, hours, and other employment-related issues agreed upon by both parties. Since a CBA is not usually expected to capture all employment issues between the parties involved, it is generally assumed that existing laws, past practices, oral agreements, and other customs are also components of the CBA.

Collective bargaining allows employers and employees to agree on a wide variety of issues, some of which may have previously been sources of grievance. However, certain state and federal laws limit the topics that can be addressed in a CBA; an employer and a workers' union cannot reach an agreement that infringes upon existing state or federal laws. For instance, they cannot agree to exclude people of a certain race from hiring. A CBA also cannot be used to waive an obligation or a right that a worker would otherwise enjoy in the absence of such an agreement. Moreover, the collective bargaining process is not always fully voluntary. At times, either party may resort to other approaches — such as strikes, picketing, or lockouts — to compel the other party to come to the negotiating table. Finally, the collective bargaining agreement is almost exclusively regulated by U.S. government labor law, which sets out the matters to be discussed, the timing, and the consequences of using non-recommended bargaining tactics (West's Encyclopedia of American Law, 2005).

Federal law on collective bargaining sets out several requirements. First, an employer does not have the power to refuse to bargain over certain topics with a workers' union, provided that the employment-related issue has majority support among the workers. Such topics are referred to as mandatory subjects. The two parties must also negotiate in good faith until they reach a deadlock. When a CBA is being implemented, an employer cannot unilaterally change any aspect of the CBA that was a mandatory subject. However, if both parties have reached an impasse, the employer is permitted to implement changes, provided that such changes were previously offered to the workers' representative for consideration (West's Encyclopedia of American Law, 2005).

Conclusion

Study.com. (2003–2016). Employee and workplace grievances: Definition & types. Retrieved June 15, 2016, from Study.com:

Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices. (2013, April). Grievance handling handbook. Retrieved June 16, 2016, from Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices: http://www.tafep.sg

West's Encyclopedia of American Law. (2005). Collective bargaining. Retrieved June 15, 2016, from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com