grievance [gree-vuh ns] -noun: legal term encompassing any workplace complaint brought by an employee to the Graduate Employee Organization making it possible to resolved via terms of your contract.
Do you have a grievance?
GEO works hard to improve the collective working conditions of graduate employees. GEO also works hard to protect the individual rights of members. In order to enforce the contract for individual members and protect their rights on the job GEO has a grievance procedure.
The grievance procedure is the way GEO works to protect the rights of individual members who may have been wronged by their supervisor or the university. GEO can use the grievance procedure to protect the rights of a member if a supervisor or the university seems to have violated the GEO contract, violated the principle of ‘past practice’ by aggressively changing work rules, or may be in violation of state and/or federal law.
In order to protect their rights, GEO members who feel they may have been wronged or mistreated should not hesitate to contact GEO stewards in their department and then send an email to: grievance@geouaw.org
The Grievance Procedure
If a grievance is found to have merit the first, and often the last, step in the grievance procedure is an informal conversation between the union representative who handles the grievance and the supervisor or appropriate University official. Many grievances are resolved in this informal way. Often the employer or supervisor is ignorant of the contract negotiated between the University and GEO and will agree to follow the contract once they have been informed about the violation.
If this informal process doesn’t resolve the issue, follow-up meetings are arranged with the Dean and other university officials. If these additional meetings do not resolve the problem, the union may take the case to an outside arbitrator for a hearing at which the union and the university present their case. The decision of the arbitrator on the grievance is final and legally binding.
GEO stewards and staff are committed to working with graduate employees through every step of this process.
Please have a look at past successful grievances brought by graduate students like you.
