What if an employee or a trade union feels the employer is not following the terms of the collective agreement, or if there is a disagreement about the meaning of part of the collective agreement?
In such a situation, the employee or the union may file a grievance. The grievance procedure is set out in the collective agreement itself. Normally, it involves three or four steps. At each step more senior people from both the union and the employer try to settle the grievance. The collective agreement will often provide for a time limit within which the grievance must be commenced (usually a certain number of days after the event giving rise to the grievance). If the grievance is not filed within this period, it may be dismissed. An arbitrator has the power to extend the time limit, but only if the other side’s position will not be prejudiced, and if the collective agreement does not forbid such an extension (See Section 48 (16) of the Labour Relations Act, 1995).
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