The University of Texas at Tyler Employee Handbook

GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

Frequent and open communications between employees and supervisors is often the best way to solve workplace disagreements. Employees may sometimes prefer to utilize a more formal process to resolve disagreements.

All employees may file complaints concerning wages, hours of work, working conditions, performance evaluations, disciplinary actions (personal conference and written warning), merit raises, job assignments, reprimands, or the interpretation or application of a rule or policy. The grievance procedure sets guidelines so that conflicts arising from the manager/employee relationship may be resolved in a amicable way.

The procedure is intended to be used in good faith by all parties concerned in an effort to resolve a problem to everyone’s satisfaction. Under no circumstances will an employee’s job status, working conditions or employment be jeopardized because he or she uses the procedure.

An employee has five (5) working days after the action or condition causing the problem to initiate the grievance procedure. Early contact is necessary to ensure timely response and thorough consideration. There are multiple levels of review in the procedure: supervisor, department head, administrative officer.

The employee should first sit down with his/her immediate supervisor and discuss the complaint. If a satisfactory solution is not found or if the complaint involved the supervisor, the employee may discuss the problem with the next level of supervision.

The employee will proceed through the chain of command until the problem is resolved, before or at the Administrative Officer level. More information is available through Human Resources and in the Handbook of Operating Procedures.