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Winter 2003

Your Rights as a Worker - Handling Grievances

The overwhelming majority of HACSU members working in the private sector are covered by awards, which contain specific grievance procedures.

The Private Sector Nursing Homes Award has a detailed grievance procedure.

The key steps in this grievance procedure are as follows:

When a grievance or dispute occurs the employee shall attempt to resolve it with his or her employer (But, of course, there is an entitlement to representation at this and other stages.)

If the grievance or dispute is not settled at this stage, the matter should be discussed between representatives of the employer and the union.

If the grievance is still unresolved, the matter should then be referred to the senior management and the senior local or state union representative.

Whilst this resolution process is occurring, work should continue (provided there is no ongoing hazard to a member's health and safety) but this would not prejudice the case of the person bringing the grievance.

At any stage either party can also take the dispute or the grievance to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission for determination.

All employers covered by the Nursing Homes Award - which is all nursing homes in Tasmania - have to formulate and adhere to policies in accordance with this procedure.

All new employees have to be handed a copy of these procedures on commencement of their employment.

What a delegate should do

Delegates involved in handling grievances need to be mindful of the fact that no matter how innocent an issue might initially seem at the outset, there is always the potential for it to become a full on arbitrated unfair dismissal case, or an equal opportunity case.

Therefore, if you attend a meeting with management on behalf of, or with a member, as far as possible, write everything down that is said. Don't be afraid to ask a manager to repeat themselves to ensure you get an accurate description of what they said. (This may in fact save you a lot of time later).

And remember, everone irrespective of how serious the charge or allegation is, has a right to natural justice.

Natural justice has two important elements; the right to a fair hearing and the right to be judged by a fair and independent, unbiased tribunal.

A fair hearing involved being advised of the allegations in writing before any meeting and being given ample time to respond.

It also involved having the matter investigated by a person who has no involvement other than to investigate, ie, the person making the allegation cannot be the investigator.