The Grievance on visiting one of Carter Cleaning Company's stores, Jennifer was surprised to be taken aside by a long-term Carter employee, who met her as she was parking her car. "Murray (the store manager) told me I was suspended for 2 days without pay because I came in late last Thursday," said George. "I'm really upset, but around here the store manager's word seems to be law, and it sometimes seems like the only way anyone can file a grievance is by meeting you or your father like this in the parking lot." Jennifer was very disturbed by this revelation and promised the employee she would look into it and discuss the situation with her father. In the car heading back to headquarters, she began mulling over what Carter Cleaning Company's alternatives might be.

Prompt Questions

 

1. Do you think it is important for Carter Cleaning Company to have a formal grievance process? Why or why not?
2. Based on what you know about the Carter Cleaning Company, outline the steps in what you think would be the ideal grievance process for this company.
3. In addition to the grievance process, can you think of anything else that Carter Cleaning Company might do to make sure grievances and gripes like this one are expressed and are heard by top management?

Grievance Handling

1. It is important that Carter Cleaning Company have in place a formal grievance process. This gives the employees an easy way of filing their complaints. A formal grievance process is a fair platform that the employees and other stakeholders can use to raise their concerns. Existence of such a process would see major issues handled effectively (SUMALATHA & SUCHARITHA 2019). In most cases, aggrieved parties keep their pain as they do not understand the procedures that they could follow to raise their issues.

2. The ideal Carter Cleaning Company grievance process could include the following steps:

Understanding the various options- the various options to raise concerns should be well described to the employees and other stakeholders

Raising the formal grievance- the aggrieved parties should raise their concerns through the provided means

Response to the formal grievance- an acknowledgement of the formal grievance should then be made through the same method used to send it (SUMALATHA & SUCHARITHA 2019)

Grievance meeting- a meeting should be held to discuss the grievance

Deciding on the outcome- the outcome of the grievance meeting should then be made immediately or within reasonable time

Follow up procedure- a follow up should be made to determine if the decision made was implemented

3. To make sure that the grievances are heard by the top management, the top management team should be made to be part of the grievance hearing team. This way, they will always be available during such grievance discussion moments. They could also be made as an option for the reporting of the grievance. The aggrieved parties should be given a chance to report to the top management regarding their issues. Free communication should therefore be enhanced between the employees and the top management.