The Grievance Process is a means through which regular employees may present work-related complaints or appeal management decisions through a Grievance Procedure. New-hire probationary employees, seasonal and temporary workers are not eligible to participate in this process.

For this purpose, a grievance is defined as a claim reasonably and suitably founded on a violation of the terms and conditions of the Human Resources Policies. Concerns of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation should be addressed through the applicable process provided in Section 2 – Employment policies.

Some non-exhaustive examples of matters which may be heard through the Grievance Procedure include:

• A belief that the City’s policies, practices, rules or regulations have been applied in violation of intent or in a manner detrimental to an employee;
• Perceived improper or unfair administration of employee benefits or conditions of employment, such as scheduling, vacations, fringe benefits, promotions, or salary awards.
• Disciplinary action has been issued without proper review or justification, or not in parity with the treatment of others.

A grievance must be brought forward in a timely fashion and as soon as it might reasonably have been known to exist. Timely fashion means within seven (7) calendar days of when the employee knew or should have known about the event giving rise to the grievance. Otherwise, the employee’s right to file a grievance will be denied unless the City agrees that something beyond the employee’s control prevented the employee from notifying the City in a timely fashion.

Once filed, if a grievance is not advanced to the higher step within the time limits provided below, the grievance shall be deemed permanently withdrawn and will be considered to have been settled based on the decision most recently given. Failure on the part of the City’s representative to answer within the time limit set forth in any step will permit the employee to proceed to the next step.

A grievance shall be written, dated, and signed by the grievant(s), and shall identify the section(s) of the Human Resources Policies alleged to have been violated, shall clearly explain the facts of the alleged violation, and shall state the requested resolution.