Know Your Rights: Grievances

At the end of my last article, I promised to write about both the bargaining and grievance Articles in our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). That turns out to be an awful lot for one article, so I’m dividing it into two; this article focuses on grievances that can be filed by individual bargaining unit members, the next one will address bargaining and arbitration, unless events change our priorities. Both bargaining and arbitration are addressed by GESTA as an organization representing employees, not by individuals. 

Grievances can be started by one or more bargaining unit employees, who have the option to be represented by GESTA, or not. Article 16 of the CBA provides all the details, with Section 16.5 delineating the steps of the grievance process. The key rules are summarized in the table below.

As the table shows, grievances escalate from your supervisor to the Center Director as one steps through the grievance process. In some cases, your supervisor may refer you to other managers or staff that can address the issue at hand. In other cases where there may be a conflict of interest with submitting a grievance to the direct supervisor, the grievance will be referred to one level above (i.e. branch head or division chief). If you are not happy with the Step 1 discussion the first thing to do is immediately document the discussion in writing, so that you have an accurate representation for further appeals. Then the next step is to file a written Step 2 grievance. 

There are some exceptions to the first step being Step 1:

• If the grievance is to appeal a RIF decision, a removal, or a suspension of more than 14 days, the appeal will be initiated at Step 3. 
• If the grievance concerns appealing a performance appraisal, actions related to unacceptable performance, or appeals of all other adverse actions it would be initiated at Step 2.
• If the grievance is against your Director Of, appeals of other adverse actions or performance appraisals that would normally be initiated at Step 2 would become a Step 3 grievance.
• If the grievance is about discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, political affiliation, or sexual orientation it needs to be documented in writing and started as a Step 2 grievance.
  

Step 2 and Step 3 grievances require an opportunity for a meeting between the Director Of / Center Director (or a delegated designee) and the employee before the final decision is made. GESTA will represent you on request, starting at any step in this process. You may also bring a lawyer to the table with you if you have obtained your own legal counsel.

GESTA also has the right to have observers at grievance meetings at Steps 2 and 3; an Area Vice President at Step 2 and GESTA’s President at Step 3. The GESTA representation can also be delegated, for example to a member of the Grievance Committee.

The full details of the grievance process can be found in Article 16 of the CBA. Other issues worth a look include Alternate Dispute Resolution (Section 16.15 and attached memo), and your Merit System Protection Board rights (Section 16.13 says that you don’t lose these rights when filing a grievance). There are many references to US Code Title 5, abbreviated to “5 USC” with a section number following. These references generally inform GESTA and Management of the laws relevant to a particular part of the CBA.

A final caution is that unless you are a lawyer familiar with Title 5, you should have a representative with you, particularly for the more severe management actions. We recommend that you have a GESTA representative if you are going to put a grievance in writing to higher levels of management, but that decision is yours and yours alone. GESTA also has labor lawyers on retainer via our International, so if things get complicated, we have that covered, too. GESTA can also file grievances as an organization if we believe the CBA is being violated; this right will be discussed in conjunction with bargaining rights and arbitration in my next column. 

Know your rights, these are your rights.