Grievances and other gripes (October 2003)
Back in the winter of aught-one, the Senate Education Committee was wrestling with the idea of whether the law on grievances should be changed to allow only the employee bringing a grievance to a school board hearing to decide whether the hearing was to be open or closed. At that time, the law allowed either the employee or the superintendent to decide: if one wanted the hearing closed, it was closed.

We patiently explained to the Committee that the typical grievance is brought by an employee angry with the principal or superintendent, and giving the employee the sole power of making that decision would simply guarantee a public forum for allowing the principal, et al., to be scolded publicly by the employee.
The Committee gave the bill a “do pass,” it was passed by both houses and signed by the governor. Since that time, I have presided over, I think, one grievance hearing in closed session, with the remaining ones being held in public, in which the employee and/or his union representative publicly scolded the principal, et al., in a public forum.

In a mood to help the schools again, and even more, the legislature aimed its sights on the grievance law in the aught-three session. We can’t thank them enough.

The helpfulness of the legislature in the new law, Act 1357 of 2003, extends to all. Now, not only may an individual file a grievance, so as to publicly scold the principal,et al., in public, whole groups may do so. Section (a)(1)(B) says, “A group of employees who have the same grievance may file a group grievance.”

Not only that, but, casting aside the whole idea that a problem might be resolved at the lowest level possible, without rancor or name-calling, the new law provides that “The right of all parties to be represented by a person of his or her own choosing, but not by a member of a party’s immediate family at any level of the procedure” is to be a part of any policy. Hello, adversarial proceeding!

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