Employee Relations: Grievance Policy and Dispute Resolution

This report discusses the Grievance Policy and Dispute Resolution in Employee Relations at Constellations Cafe. It covers the responsibilities of employees and managers, procedure, and outcome. The report also provides recommendations for the organization to address the existing issues.

Running head: EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
Employee Relations
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Grievance Policy:
1. Introduction:
1.1. The Grievance Policy is a written policy in order to ensure that disputes and grievances on
the part of the employees can be dealt in accordance to formal complaints.
2. Purpose:
2.1 The Grievance Policy has been formulated for the purpose of enabling employees of the
Constellations Cafe to raise complaints in regard to the issues faced by them at workplace; it
ensures that the workplace issues and grievances are resolved timely. The policy is consistent
with the ACAS guidance on grievance and disciplinary.
3. Policy:
3.1 The policy has been implemented foe the purpose of providing structural framework relying
upon which employees of the Constellation Café can raise their dissatisfaction regarding the
functioning of the company.
3.2 The policy seeks to ensure that the grievances and the employee disputes are addressed
timely and are kept confidential.
4 Responsibilities of the Employees:
4.1. The employees of the Constellation Café are responsible to raise the grievance formally
immediately to their line manager as soon as the issue appeared.
4.2. To provide sufficient evidence for their case by making a list of all the incidents those were
associated with such grievance.
4.3. To seek the advice and assistance of the trade union whenever necessary.

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5. Responsibilities of the Managers:
5.1. To resolve the issue by emphasizing upon t to the highest degree possible.
5.2. To listen actively to the grievances placed by the employees and evaluate those in the
perspective of the employees of the Constellation Cafe and in such process shall recognize that
no grievance is trivial on the part of the employee raising it.
5.3. Promoting the benefits of the Employee Assistance Program whenever necessary.
5.4. The policy shall be effectively applied by both Jane and Jim in the workplace wherever
appropriate.
6. Procedure:
6.1. The initial steps that needs to be taken:
6.1.1. If any employee raises a grievance, then at the beginning he/she should try to resolve the
issue formally. It can be further recommended that the individual against whom the grievance
has been developed should be resolved by talking to the concerned person personally. Again if
such process seems to be uncomfortable, then the employee should consult his/her line
manager or a representative of the trade union whenever necessary.
6.1.2. The representative shall help the employee in resolving such issue as early as possible.
6.1.3. If the aggrieved party is not comfortable to approach the individual directly then the line
manager can intervene in between by acting as mediator between the parties.
7. Contracting the concerned person and the procedure and information:
7.1. Firstly, the grievance must be informed to the HR. After hearing the concerned grievance,
the HR manager will look forward to the issue and try to resolve it as soon as possible.

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7.2. After obtained relevant information, the manager shall consult with the HR and investigate
the facts of the issue and resolve it on time.
8. Outcome:
8.1. If any employee of the Constellation Café does not agree to the outcome, then he/she can
present an appeal against the outcome of the grievance however; it must be done within five
working hours after receiving the letter.

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Report:
Table of Contents
Executive Summary:................................................................................................................. 5
Introduction:.............................................................................................................................. 6
Discussion:................................................................................................................................ 6
Negotiation of new working conditions:..................................................................................6
Obtaining new enterprise agreement:......................................................................................7
Documentation and certification requirements:.....................................................................7
New Collective Agreement:.......................................................................................................8
Corrective actions for non-conformances:..............................................................................8
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................ 8
Recommendations:...................................................................................................................9

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Executive Summary:
The purpose of the report is to emphasize upon the underlying industrial disputes. In this regard,
the report seeks to apply relevant legislation to the appropriate scenario. The intention of the
report is to emphasize upon the negotiation of working hours for the purpose of resolving
disputes. The report intends to provide relevant information regarding the implementation and
documentation for new collective agreement. Lastly, the report is commissioned to examine the
corrective actions for non-conformances with the actions of the agreement.

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Introduction:
The grievance procedure can be applied by an organization as an effective means of
dispute resolution. The grievance procedure has proved to be efficient in addressing the
complaints raised by employees, customers and suppliers. The nature of grievance procedure is
such that it has been providing a hierarchical structure for the purpose of resolving workplace
disputes. In the present report, the dispute is regarding conflicts and grievances among the
staffs as a result of increased stress in workplace. Therefore, in order to address the existing
issue it is important to emphasize upon the implementation of new enterprise agreement which
needs to be negotiated as well.
Discussion:
The source of the dispute:
The dispute is related to employment issues. The issues of the employees of the
Constellation Café were not addressed by both Jim and Jane by hiring new staffs and by
increasing their wages.
Relevant Legislation:
The provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 can be applied to the above scenario. This is
due to the reason that, from the beginning, the Fair Work Act 2009 has been governing the rules
and regulations related to employees’ disputes.

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Key parties involved in the dispute:
The key parties to the dispute are Jane and Jim, the Head Chef and the Cook.
Avoiding potential industrial action:
If disputes related to workplace are not solved then, it may lead to industrial action.
There are various forms of industrial actions such as strike and lock-out. In order to avoid
industrial actions it is important to manage relationship with the employees. It is essential to
notify the employees of the organization about the potential action and ensure to protect them
from any unlawful actions or detriment. It is important to negotiate with the employees and
persuade them to not to participate in any industrial action without prior information to the
employer. The adoption and maintenance of calm and reasonable is important for the purpose
of avoiding serious consequences arising out of industrial actions. It is worthwhile to refer here
that, unofficial industrial actions are those which are not recognized by any trade union.
Therefore, it is important on the part of the Trade Unions to send a 7 days’ notice prior to the
industrial action. Lastly, mention can be made regarding the fact that, disputes with the
employees and the representatives can result into industrial action which can cause potential
damage to the parties involved in it. Therefore, effort should be made by the parties to solve
workplace disputes in the first place.
Seeking additional Expert Advice:
In order to seek additional expert advice it is important to depend upon long-term
business advisors. These long-term advisors can help in polishing the business to a large
extent. Consultants are referred to as short term advisors hired in regard to their tactical
expertise in specific areas that can provide valuable assistance in employee recruitment
process.
Negotiation of new working conditions:

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As a way of negotiating working conditions, it is important improve tactics for employee
Satisfaction. Therefore, much emphasis can be laid on the recognition of high cost of attrition. It
is worthwhile to refer here that, there are existing conflicts in the process of negotiation In order
to address these conflicts; the emerging bargaining process is associated with the intervention
of conflict management and dispute resolution. In order to negotiate new working conditions it is
important to emphasize-
 Adjust the existing procedures in accordance to the preferences of the employees. If the
nature of the decision-making procedure is such that it is disliked by the employees then
it needs to be reformed.
 It is important to promote integrative negotiation. In this regard, the existence of a multi-
issue framework has allowed negotiators to make necessary tradeoffs.
Obtaining new enterprise agreement:
New enterprise agreement can be obtained for the purpose of addressing particular
requirements of an organization. Therefore, in this regard, it can be stated that, an enterprise
agreement leaves an employee to a better position compared to that of a relevant award. It is
noteworthy to mention here that, enterprise agreements can be referred to as collective
agreements made in an organization between an employer and employee containing the terms
and conditions of employment. In this regard, the Fair Work Commission can provide relevant
information on the process of formulation and implementation of enterprise agreements.
How Jane and Jim will advocate the position of the organization:
In order to address the issues of the workers of the organization, Jim and Jane must
obtain the enterprise agreement in order to negotiate the terms and conditions of the agreement
between the employer and employee. They can rely upon relevant provisions of the Fair Work
Commission for the purpose of formulating the enterprise agreement.

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Documentation and certification requirements:
The Fair Work Act 2009 categorizes the documentation and certification requirements of an
enterprise agreement. These can be categorized as-
 Single-enterprise agreement: It is made between a single employer and employees that
has been employed by the organization at the time of making such agreement. The
employers have to be authorized by the Fair Work Commission.
 Multi-enterprise agreement: It takes place between two or more employers and
employees employed in the organization at the time of employment.
New Collective Agreement:
The collective agreement is an agreement applicable to a specific organization occurring
between an employer and an employee. The collective agreement can be made applicable
during the process of alternative dispute resolution. Alternative dispute resolution is the process
by which the parties in beach can escape litigation as it is time consuming and complex.
Therefore, in the present scenario, both Jane and Jim can involve themselves in the process of
dispute resolution and resolve the matter accordingly.
Corrective actions for non-conformances:
Non-conformance can be defined as a departure from an agreed agreement taking place
between an approved authority and an individual working in an organization. Non-conformances
can be identified with the help of quality management system audit.
Conclusion:
In the conclusion, it can be stated that for the purpose of addressing the existing issues
of the organization Jane and Jim must implement grievance policy of their own in collaboration
with the abovementioned measures.

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Recommendations:
I. The organization should involve implementation processes in accordance to new
collective agreement.
II. The new enterprise agreement must be drafted accordingly which shall include the
training procedures on the part of both Jim and Jane.
III. The organization should adhere to the corrective actions for non-conformances in regard
to the agreed actions depicted in the agreement.

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