Understanding Workplace Grievances: Key Points for Employees to Consider (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: There's a couple of things that you should know about grievances and making grievances or complaints in the workplace. Firstly, you need to understand that a grievance is a complaint. So the employee is going to make a complaint about some aspect of the job, some aspect of work with which he or she feels aggrieved, feels he or she needs to make a complaint about. There is a couple of things, though, that you should be aware of. Firstly, if you end up going to the WRC or court, but if you go to the WRC or the Labour Court and you've got a complaint about bullying, for example, in the workplace, or you've got a complaint founded on constructive dismissal, in other words, you're saying that you had no choice but to leave the job because of the conduct of the employer or the conduct that you had to experience or endure in the workplace, you will have a very hard time weighing your case for constructive dismissal if you haven't availed of the internal procedures first. That may well involve either a grievance procedure or the dignity at work procedure or policy involving, for example, anti-bullying or an anti-bullying procedure. So that's the first thing. The first thing you need to understand is that if you're going to go to the WRC or the Labour Court with some sort of a claim or some sort of a cause of action, you're going to be in a weak position. You're going to be behind the black ball, quite frankly, from the word go, if you haven't already used the internal grievance procedure and indeed even exhausted the internal procedure first. So that may well involve appealing the outcome of any complaint or grievance you've made. So that's the first thing. The second thing, though, you need to understand is that when you make a complaint or grievance in the workplace, it's all very well making your complaint. It's all very well working or following the procedure in accordance with the staff handbook or the procedure that's been set out. But what you need to understand as well is that essentially you're making a complaint. Somebody, some representative on behalf of the employer or the employer himself is going to decide that complaint. Your complaint may be against another employee, for example. It may be against the employer. It may be against some work practice or something in the workplace. But the bottom line is that if you make a complaint to a decision maker, and ultimately that's what you're doing, it may go against you. Not that you're going to be penalised or that you're going to be victimised for making the complaint. But your complaint may well be not upheld or it could be partially upheld or it could be dismissed. And just a finding that there's no substance to it, that it's a misconceived, quite frankly. So they, I believe, are two important things that you need to understand about making a complaint. One, there is circumstances where it is absolutely essential to have made one in the first instance. And that circumstance would be where you're going to bring a claim to the WRC. There is also circumstances, however, where if you are in the job for the long haul, you're in the job for the long road, then you need to be smart and intentional and strategic about bringing a complaint or a grievance or an allegation of bullying, for example. And the potential for the complaint not being upheld and the difficulty then down the tracks with the person against whom you've made the complaint or even the employer coming across perhaps as a frivolous complaint maker who's never satisfied. I'm not discouraging you, I'm not telling you, you are not to bring a complaint. You're not to use the procedure in the workplace. I'd be the very first person to encourage you to do so. However, I am warning you that when you do make a complaint, somebody ultimately is going to have to sit in judgment on that grievance. And it may go against you. It may be found that your complaint is not well founded. It's misconceived and it won't be upheld or perhaps only partially upheld. So there are two things I think you should know about the grievance procedure. It is a complaints procedure. It's in the workplace. There's other places you can go after that if you're not satisfied or not happy. But they are two things I believe you should know about the grievance procedure in your workplace. I hope you find this video useful and I thank you for your support and your comments and your subscribes and sharing and so on and so forth on my channel.