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WIGAN METROPOLITAN DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE – TO BE USED FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

1. Employees who have a grievance about their employment should first discuss the problems with their supervisor.

1. The supervisor should reply orally as soon as possible and in any case within 3 working days.

1. If the complaint is dissatisfied with the reply he may then take up the matter with the supervisor again, through his trade union representative.

1. The supervisor shall reply within 3 days.

1. If the employee continues to be aggrieved his  representative should inform the Company Secretary in writing of the grievance , stating the employee’s name, designation, section, department and normal place of work, base of depot and the name of the supervisor with whom the matter was discussed.

1. The Company Secretary, or his representative, may investigate the complaint and interview anyone concerned and also informally seek to resolve the grievance by agreement.

1. When the Company Secretary is formally notified of a grievance he will immediately inform the Borough Personnel Officer.  Unless the grievance is resolved under paragraph 5, the Company Secretary will arrange a meeting attended by himself or a senior representative, appropriate members of  his staff, the Borough Personnel Officer or his representative, the complainant and his representative.  By agreement the complainant may have more than one representative.  The complainant’s representative may be a full time trade union official.

1. The meeting will be held within 7 working days of the Company Secretary receiving formal notification of an employee’s grievance.  It will be held in an appropriate place and all reasonable expenses incurred attending  the meeting, will be reimbursed to the Authority’s employees.

1. The object of the meeting will be to resolve the grievance by understanding and agreement.

1. The Company Secretary will inform in writing the complainant, his full-time trade union official and the Borough Personnel Officer, of the result of the meeting as soon as possible

WMDC/GRIEVANCE/JULY/07

1. If the complainant continues to be aggrieved in respect of the original complaint, his representative, must inform the Company Secretary in writing.

1. Following formal notification to the Company Secretary that the meeting had failed to resolve the grievance, the grievance be referred to the Grievance Sub-Committee of the Board. A meeting of  the Sub-Committee  to be held within 28 days after formal notification to the Company Secretary.

• The Sub-Committee will also seek to resolve the grievance by understanding and agreement. Any appropriate persons should normally be permitted to attend during the discussion of the grievance.

1. The Company Secretary will inform the complainant  and his full time trade union official in writing of the decision  of the Sub-Committee.

1. If the complainant continues to be aggrieved, the matter may now be raised at Board level.

NOTES

• This procedure is not to be used for any matter where other recognised bargaining arrangements already exist.

• Employees are requested not to raise matters under this procedure which are not with the control of the Company.

• The time limits stated in the procedure may be extended by mutual agreement.

• This procedure is intended for individual employee’s grievances only. Collective grievances of any group of employees would be referred to as  “Disputes” and need more appropriate procedure to seek to resolve them.

• An employee may, in the first instance meet his supervisor on his own or jointly with his trade union representative.

• Employees may, if they wish, use this procedure without representation at meetings although both trade unions and management would strongly advise against this course of action.

NB. All references to the male gender apply equally to females.