Toward a Better Understanding of the Grievance Procedure in the Public Service--A Canadian Example

Renaud Paquet and Sylvain Dufour

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DOI: 10.2190/H22N-XRJ6-3AYE-AFJ7

Abstract

Managers and unions in public and private sector unionized workplaces, as well as scholars, are keenly interested in the problems that arise in the area of union grievances. The objective of this article was to study two of these issues: the propensity to grieve and employee perceptions of the effectiveness of the grievance procedure itself. In examining the first theme, we build upon Wheeler s theory of industrial conflict [1]. Our findings confirmed the relevance of this theory as a framework for the analysis of the propensity to grieve. Our findings also demonstrated that employees are rarely satisfied with the grievance procedure. Finally, we concluded the grievance procedure is ineffective on the basis of the criteria generally found in the pertinent literature. Our data was taken from a survey distributed to 876 potential respondents who work in one of the major departments of the Canadian public service.

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