tumaini university dar es salaam college human resources relations [hrm 301] presented by maurus...

TUMAINI UNIVERSITY DAR ES SALAAM COLLEGE

Human Resources Relations [HRM 301]Presented

By Maurus Mpunga

Grievance, Discipline and Retrenchment procedures

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Employees Discipline

Under this category we shall cover the followings:

Meaning and features of Discipline Objectives of Discipline Types of DisciplineCauses of Indiscipline or Misconduct Guidelines of a disciplinary ActionProcedures of disciplinary Action

Employees Discipline

Disciplinary actions: Penalties and Punishments

Statutory provision concerning Discipline

Meaning of Discipline

Introduction Discipline is an important aspect of Human

Resources Management. Personnel management is far more important when people are being fired rather than hired. Employee indiscipline is both the cause and effect of the state of industrial relations.

The word “discipline” is derived from the Latin word “disciplina”, which means teaching, learning and growing.

Meaning of Discipline

According to Richard D. Calhoon, “ Discipline may be considered as a force that prompts individuals or group of to observe the rules, regulations and procedures which are deemed to be necessary for the effective functioning of an organisation “

Features of Discipline

1. A disciplinary action refers to one's self-control to conform organizational rules and regulations.

2. Discipline is a determinative willingness that promotes individual and group to carry out the instructions and suggestions that have framed by the organization as acceptable behavior.

Features of Discipline

3. Discipline is a negative approach in the sense that it encourages individual to undertake some actions that restrain them from undertaking others.

4. Discipline is a positive in the sense that it imposes a penalty if the values and norms that have been laid down by the organization are violated.

Objectives of Employee Discipline

The primary concern of discipline is to frame an employee's behavior as per the organizational rules and regulations, or the value set by the organization. Besides, other important objectives are as follows:


1. To obtain organizational rules, regulations, norms and values so that the organizational activities are performed effectively.

2. To impart the environment of certainty despite the differences in individual backgrounds, cultures, values and experiences, and other related organizational changes.

3. To develop a spirit of tolerance and desire to make adjustments among employees


4. To give and seek direction and responsibility.5. To promote the environment of respect for

human personality and harmonious labor relation.

6. To motivate the employees for higher level of performance.

Types of Discipline

1. Self controlled discipline : In self controlled discipline the employee brings her or his behavior in to agreement with the organizations official behavior code, ie the employee regulate their activities for the common good of the organization. As a result the human beings are induced to work for a peak performance under self controlled discipline.

Types of Discipline

2. Enforced Discipline : Is a managerial action enforces employee compliance with organization’s rules and regulations. ie it is a common discipline imposed from the top here the manager exercises his authority to compel the employees to behave in a particular way

Causes of Indiscipline or Misconduct

What is Indiscipline? Indiscipline means disorderliness, insubordination

and not following the rules and regulation of an organization.

The symptoms of indiscipline are change in the normal behaviour, absenteeism, go-slow at work, increase in number and severity of grievances, persistent and continuous demand for overtime allowance, and lack of concern for performance.


Non-placement of the right person on the right job which is suitable for his qualifications, experience and training.

Undesirable behaviour of senior officials. who may have set a pattern of behaviour which they expect their subordinates to follow; but their expecta tions are often belied, and an infringement of rules follows;

Faulty evaluation of persons and situations by executives leads of favoritism.


Lack of upward communication. as a result of which the thoughts, feelings and reactions of employees cannot be conveyed to the top management. This may lead to aggressive or rebellious behaviour;

Leadership which is weak, flexible, incompetent and distrustful.


Defective supervision and an absence of good supervisors who know good techniques, who are in a position to appreciate critically the efforts or their subordinates.

Lack of properly drawn rules and regulations. or the existence of rules and regulations which are so impracticable that they cannot be observed; and the absence of service manuals and a code of behaviour;


The “divide and rule” policy of the management, as a result of which friction and misunderstanding are created among the employees which destroy the team spirit;

Illiteracy and low intellectual level of workers as well as their social background; for example, there may be indebtedness, drinking habits, and other social evils from which an employee may suffer;

Guidelines of a disciplinary Action

Disciplinary or corrective action is a process of communicating with the employee to improve unacceptable behavior or performance. You may take disciplinary action when other methods such as coaching and performance appraisal have not been successful


Disciplinary action especially punitive one produces pains and displeasures for the accused employee, hence meticulous care is called for while taking disciplinary action. Overtime the behavioral scientists have developed some guidelines to indicate how discipline be administered. In this section, we will briefly describe these guidelines:


1. Disciplinary action should be corrective rather than punitive: the objective of disciplinary action is not to deal out punishment but to correct an employees' undesirable behavior. Therefore disciplinary action must not be thought of a punitive action .

2. Disciplinary action should be progressive: it is generally desirable for discipline to be progressive.


So to say disciplinary actions must follow a series of sequential actions or steps with increasing severity of punishment in every next step, for example progressive discipline should begin with an oral warning and proceed through a written warning, suspension, loss of seniority, loss of increment, and only in most serious cases, dismissal or some such harsh punishment.


3.Disciplinary action should follow the “Hot Stove” rule one effective guideline to administer discipline is to follow what is popularly known as the hot stove rule this rule suggest that applying discipline is much like touching a hot stove.:

The burn is immediate when one touches hot stove, the burn is instantaneous, leaving no question of cause and effect


The person had an example warning. The person knows what would happen if it is touched

The burn is consistent. Every time one touches hot stove, he/she gets the same response, i.e. one gets burned

The burn is impersonal. Regardless of who one is if he/she touches a hot stove, the stove will burn anyone.


4.There should be clearly specified behaviour which fall under the category of indiscipline and requires disciplinary action. Mere an error in job performance is not indiscipline

5. The action should be taken promptly, immediately after the commitment of indiscipline. Any unreasonable delay in action loses its weight and effectiveness.


6. The action taken should meet the criteria of natural justice. It means that management should take the action without any bias, prejudice. The employee concerned must feel that the action to be taken is based on fair play. The action should be based on principle of equity, that is there should be equal treatment in taking disciplinary action.


7. The disciplinary action should be taken in private. Any action taken in front of other employees may arouse resentment unnecessarily. The employee should not be harassed unnecessary and nothing should be done which goes against his dignity.

8. Before taking the action, the employee should be allowed to put his explanation for the behavior


9. After the action is taken, the superior should treat his subordinate in a normal manner which will encourage the employee to engage in more constructive behaviour.

Procedures of disciplinary Action

Positive discipline is not just a simple act of supervisor discussing performance problems with an employee. Rather it is a procedure compromising a number of steps,. Important steps in that procedure are:

1.Location of responsibility 2.Define performance expectation 3.Communication of policy, procedures and rules

Procedures of disciplinary Action

4. Collection of Performance data5. Framing charges and intimation 6. Consideration of explanation 7. Awarding Punishment 8. Follow up

Location of responsibility

The question: who should administer discipline is a subject to some debate, the responsibility for administering discipline should fall on the shoulder of immediate supervisor of the employee. The reason being immediate supervisor is responsible for employees’ output. He/she knows better about employees performance problem.

Define performance expectation

A core ingredient in every disciplinary procedure is to clearly define the standard of behavior that management expect from its employees. Employee standards of performance or behaviour must be in conformity with the organisational objectives. Many organisations provide their employees with written principles of behaviour in the form of employees manuals

Communication of policy, procedures and rules

In order to maintain satisfactory levels of employee performance, the disciplinary policy, procedures and rules formulated by the organisation need to be clearly communicated to the employees. Employees about their expected behaviour should be communicated through employees handbook/manuals, orientation programmes, rules and regulations distributed in writing to employees or on bulletin boards.

Collection of Performance data

Before an employee is disciplined, it is of the utmost importance to prove that some rule, regulation or standard is violated and thus, unsatisfactory performance has taken place.

Framing charges and intimation

Once the case of employees' misconduct is established, the employer the issue a notice to employee stating charges labeled against him. Such as notice is generally known as “show cause notice” . In the notice, each charge needs to be clearly specified. Also the accused employee should be given an opportunity to explain his/her position

Consideration of explanation

On receipt of explanation from the accused employee, the management may consider any one of the three types of options available to it:

1. If the accused employee confesses the charge labeled against him, the management can dispense any further enquiry and award punishment to the accused employee.

Consideration of explanation

2. In case management is satisfied with the explanation given by accused, the charged against him can be cancelled and quashed.

3. If the management is not satisfied with the explanation given by the accused, the management can proceed to further probing of the matter so that the fact is established and an appropriate action can be taken.

Awarding Punishment

Once the unsatisfactory performance of the accused is well established, the management then awards punishment to the accused employee. While awarding punishment, the management should follow a procedure of progressive discipline.

Follow up

The last in the procedure of positive discipline is follow-up. It means once the punishment is awarded, it is necessary to keep vigil whether the punishment has any salutary effect on the behaviour and performance of the accused employee or not. If not the corrective measures like corrective counseling should be introduced to improve the accuser's behaviour.


Discipline particularly positive follows a typical sequence from mild to harsh; these vary from oral warning, written notice, suspension, demotion, pay cut and dismissal in that order. These six steps are the topics for discussion in this section:


Oral warning The mildest form of discipline is the oral

warning. This is usual awarded on minor offences like late coming, absenteeism, etc which are committed for the first time. A common practice followed in this regard is to make a temporary record of this warning and place the same in the employees’ file.

Oral warning

Once the employee has shown better performance and willingness to adhere the rules and regulations, the record of the oral reprimand is removed from his file

Written notice

The second step in order of severity in progressive discipline. Is the written notice or warning. This is awarded for repeated for repeated minor offences or some major lapses. The procedure in involved in writing of the warning is the same as the oral warning. The only difference is that the discussion concludes with the employee being told that a written warning will be issued.

Written notice

Then the manager writes up the warning. A copy of the warning is sent to the personnel department.

Suspension

Suspension also called layoff. Is the next logical step taken in progressive discipline. Suspension as punishment is awarded for some serious offences. Suspension may be for certain period ranging from a day to several weeks or months.

Demotion

For the serious offence where suspension has not been effective and management wants to avoid dismissal, demotion is considered as an alternative punishment.

Pay cut

Another alternative also rarely in practice, is cutting the problem employees' pa. this is awarded mostly when offence led to damage or loss of property. A part of the loss is recovered from such pay cut of the employee.

Dismissal/ Discharge

Dismissal is the ultimate disciplinary action taken against problem employee. This punishment awarded only for the most serious offences involving integrity. Both dismissal and discharge lead to employee separation from the organisation.

Employees’ Grievance


ILO defines a grievance as a complaint of one or more workers related to: - Wages and allowance - Conditions of work - Interpretation of service conditions covering such as OT, Leave, Transfer, Promotion, Seniority, Job Assignment & Termination of Service


Grievance: It is simply a complaint, which has been formally presented in writing, to management representative or a union official. However for most of the people, the word "grievance” suggests a complaint that has been ignored, overridden or dismissed without due consideration.

Features of grievance

1. Grievance reflects dissatisfaction or discontent experienced by an employee

2. It is feeling of injustice to one’s job by the employer or the management

3. It may be unvoiced/implied or expressed by an employee an employee

4. It may be written or verbal5. It may be real or imaginary, valid or legitimate

Features of grievance

6. Grievance arises out of something related to employee’s employment contract.

7. Grievance, if not redressed in time, gives rise to discontent, frustration, poor morale and ultimately to low productivity

Grievances generally arise from the day-do-day working relations in the undertaking, usually a employee or trade union protest against an act or omission or management that is considered to violate worker’s rights. There are certainly some of the causes that can lead to grievance. Some of them are listed below:

Causes or source of Grievances


Management PoliciesThe policies and procedures adopted by

management give rise to grievance. The autocratic or bureaucratic style of management, for instance, is hardly liked by educated masses. But they favor rather a participative style of management


Similarly, management practices also lead to employee grievance at work as the want to exploit employees through reduction in pays and other benefits. Grievances resulting from management policies are:

• Wages rates or scale of pay• - Overtime• - Leave


• Transfer improper matching of the worker with the job

• - Seniority, promotion and discharge• - Lack of career planning and employee

development• - Lack of regard for collective agreement• - Hostility towards a labor union• - Autocratic leadership style of supervisors


Working ConditionsWorking conditions are relative to the work

environment of the organization. If the working environment of company is good, employees will get less place for grievance. Grievance resulting from working conditions are:


• Unrealistic environment• Non-availability of proper tools, machines and

equipments for doing the jobs• Tight production standards• Bad physical conditions of workplace• Poor relationship with the supervisor• Negative approach to discipline


• Personal Factors- Personal factors are related to the personality traits of individuals. Sometimes, these personality traits also cause the emergence of grievances at work. Some important personality traits that result into grievance are:

• Over ambition• Narrow attitudes• Excessive self esteem

Why Grievances procedures?

As a matter of fact, there several substantive reasons for having a formal grievance procedure in an organisation:

i. It provides an established and known method of processing grievances and keeps this open

ii. It brings grievance to the knowledge of management so that it can know and understand them to take necessary actions for their settlement

Why Grievances procedures?

iii. It gives an assurance to the employees that there is a mechanism available to consider his or her grievance in a dispassionate and detached manner.

iv. Venting his grievance and being heard gives the employee a feeling of being cared for.

Grievances procedures

These guidelines for grievance procedure is a guidance and shall be applicable employer and employees and their organisation. The objective of these procedures are:

(a)To provide for a process for resolving employee’s grievances

(b)To settle grievance as near as possible to their point of origin


(c ) to ensure that the employer treats grievances seriously and resolve them as quickly as possible and

(d) To ensure that employees are treated fairly and consistently by the employer.


There are two types of grievances procedures :1.Informal Grievances procedure2.Formal Grievances procedure

Informal Grievances procedure

An employee should be entitled to use this procedure when it is within a reasonable period from when the grievance occurred

In the interest of maintaining good working relations, an aggravated employee is encouraged to first discuss any grievance verbally with his immediately manager.


Provided that this shall not be required if it would be unreasonable to expect employee to do so, where the grievance concerns that immediate manage. The employee may proceed directly to stage one of this procedure


Where the manager fails to resolve the grievance to the employee’s satisfaction within five working days or any other agreed period between them, the aggrieved employee may complete a formal grievance form and refer the matter to stage one to be dealt with by a much senior manager.

Formal Grievances procedure

Stage OneThe employee must outline the grievances in

writing and suggest for a possible remedy in the prescribe formal grievance form. The manager who dealt with the grievance in the informal grievance stage must fill the steps taken to resolve the grievance comment and any suggested remedies.


Where the employees immediately manager deals grievance at stage two of this procedure the employee should discuss the grievance verbally with that person before completion a formal grievance form. Stage two of this shall be dealt with by a senior manager.


Stage two Once the manager dealing with the grievance in

stage two has received a formal grievance form. Should invite the aggrieved employee to attend a grievance meeting to discuss the matter and should use best endeavors[action] to resolve the grievance within ten working days or any other period agreed between them.


The manager dealing with the grievance in this stage may agree with the employee and employee’s representative on the appropriate procedure to follow in each case. This may involve calling a meeting of aggravated parties and facilitation of mediation and arbitration a commission of inquiry or any other procedure that may be deemed appropriate in the circumstances.


Where it happens that the employee is still aggrieved the employee may use means available in law for the protection for the employees’ right.

Essentials of sound grievance procedure

The characteristics an effective or sound grievance procedure should contain are as follow:

1. Legal Sanctity: the grievance procedure should be legally alright. In other words, the procedure should be in close conformity with existing law of the land. To the extent possible, the legislative machinery should be incorporated in the grievance procedure.


2. Acceptability: The procedures to be acceptable to all workers, managers and union should contain the features like a sense of fair play, justice to workers and reasonable exercise of authority to managers.

3. Timely: The procedure should aim at timely redressed of grievance at the lowest level possible. Added to it there should be a time limit prescribed and rigidly followed at each level of grievance procedure.


4. Simple: The procedure should be simple to understand and implement. Minimization of steps to be involved in the procedure makes it simple.

5. Training: To make the grievances procedure effective the supervisors and other officers should be imparted training in grievance handling.


6. Follow up: The decision taken for settling grievance should be reviewed at periodical intervals so that corrective measure can be taken to make the grievance procedure more effective.

Retrenchment

Retrenchment, means a termination of employment based on operational requirements such as economic, technological, structural or similar needs of an employer.

Retrenchment Procedures

1. Consultation Where an employer contemplates to retrench the

employee for operational requirements, the management shall notify in writing the employee likely to be affected and to consult with the trade union which includes-

(a) Any union recognized as the exclusive bargain agent if retrenchment is contemplated within the bargain unit.


(c ) any affected employees who are not represented under (a) or (b) above.

Management’s in written notice shall state the employer’s views on the following-

(a)The reason for the intended retrenchment(b)Any measures to avoid or minimize the intended

retrenchment.(c) The selection for the employees to be

rentrenched


(d) The timing of the retrenchment(e) Severance pay in respect of the

retrenchment and (f) Any additional retrenchment package


2. Disclose of Information The management shall disclose to the consulting parties

referred to above, all the relevant information on the intended retrenchment to enable meaning consultation to take place on the range of issues.

3.Selection CriteriaEmployee to be retrenched shall be selected according

to the criteria that agree or which are fair and objective


These criteria shall take into account factors such as the following:

(a)The employees’ length of services. With employees being selected according to the LIFO

(b)The need for the efficient operation of the organisation

(c)The need to retain key jobs and skills


(d) The ability, experience, skill or occupational qualifications of employees or affirmative action criteria

4. Severance benefitsAn employer shall pay severance pay to a

retrenched employee at least equivalent to seven days’ basic wage for each completed year of continuous service with that employer up to maximum of ten years.


5. The work opportunity for preferential Re-employment

Retrenched employee expressing an interest in future re-employment shall be given preference in re-employment if the employer within two years of retrenchment seeks to recruit employees in comparable occupations.


In these circumstances, the management must takes reasonable steps to inform the retrenched employees any union existing workplace and any registered union with members employed by the firm of these employment opportunities.

THANKS

tumaini university dar es salaam college human resources relations [hrm 301] presented by maurus...

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