Introduction
Employees may disagree with actions taken or not taken by their supervisors/managers or by other management officials. Some of these issues may be grieved under the negotiated grievance procedure described in the various MOUs. Other issues may be appealed to the Civil Service Commission.
Both the negotiated grievance process and the Civil Service Commission appeal process allow an employee to bring her or his issue to someone other than the supervisor or manager who took or did not take the action with which the employee takes issue.
An issue can be grieved only if it involves an alleged violation of a provision of an MOU. In the grievance process, the represented employee goes through a series of steps, presenting his/her case for consideration at each step. If the issue is not resolved at the lower steps of the process, the matter may ultimately be presented to an independent arbitrator whose decision is binding on both parties.
An issue can be appealed to the Civil Service Commission only if the Civil Service Rules specify that the issue is subject to the Civil Service appeal process. In such an appeal, the employee presents his/her issue to the Commission, with no prior steps in the process. The Commission’s decision is binding on both parties.
In the case of a disciplinary action, a represented, classified employee must decide whether to file a grievance or request an appeal before the Commission. Once either process has begun, the employee cannot switch to the other process.