Purpose

To provide a procedure for managing grievances of administrative employees.

Policy

It is the policy of Ohio university to provide reasonable grievance procedures for administrators to appeal involuntary terminations with cause, and disciplinary actions equal to a suspension of greater than three days, and an involuntary demotion. Any employee whose grievance involves alleged discrimination will be directed to the office of civil rights compliance per Ohio university policy 40.001. Performance evaluations, salary disputes, disputes concerning working conditions and employment separations due to a reduction in force in accordance with policy 41.013 are not grievable. Employment separations for employees holding intermittent, special, research and term appointments are not grievable. 

Procedure

An individual who feels that a grievance exists shall be responsible for stating, in writing, using the Ohio university administrative employee grievance form the grounds upon which the alleged grievance is based. The burden of proof rests upon the grievant. All time limits in this policy refer to workdays.  

1. The grievant must file the grievance with said employee’s immediate supervisor within ten workdays of the occurrence or within ten workdays of when said employee had or should have had knowledge of the occurrence which led to the grievance. The immediate supervisor must respond to the grievance in writing within seven workdays. 
2. If the grievant is not satisfied with the response, said employee may appeal within seven workdays to the chair of the administrative senate. Within fourteen workdays, the chair shall appoint an ad hoc committee (grievance review committee) of the administrative senate of at least three administrators, none of whom shall be employed in the grievant's department. The committee will review the complete record. The committee will meet with the grievant to discuss the committee's authority and the process for reviewing the grievance. If at any time the grievant is exploring other avenues of settlement, the committee's process will be stayed until those avenues of settlement are complete. If pursuing other avenues of settlement takes more than sixty workdays, the grievant must re-initiate the grievance process. The committee will notify the employee, the employee's planning unit head, and the chair of the administrative senate of its recommendation within thirty workdays of receiving the grievance. The planning unit head will have seven workdays to accept, reject, or modify the committee's recommendation and will notify the employee of the decision in writing. The written decision of