Grievance Writing

1. Writing Good Grievances
Use assertive but polite business language but be VERY mindful of the relationship with
management. You do NOT have to be abusive, negative or haughty as those
approaches are likely to only incite a similar response from management back to you.
Your objective is to get a great resolution to your grievance! So how can you write your
grievance to encourage management to understand the problem AND want to solve it
with you?
The Parts of a Grievance:
1. Issue: “Sally was denied a promotion”
2. Facts: “posting #345 was awarded to Parm who is junior to Sally Smith. Sally is
both qualified and senior”
3. Law: “Article 12.5 (c) requires that where two or more candidates are relatively
equally qualified that the senior employee shall be awarded the position”
4. Remedy: “Sally should be awarded the position retroactive to Parm’s start date
and with full back pay”
Grievance Example:
Note that grievances can be filed on any of:
 official union grievance forms,
 email
 formal business letter
Any of these forms is legally acceptable as a grievance.
The sample below is in the form of a formal business letter:

2. November 21, 2XXX
IBEW Local 123
456 7th St., Surrey, BC
Margaret Thatcher,
Manager, ABC Corporation
89117 – 128 Ave.
Surrey, BC
Re: Grievance of Sally Smith
Dear Ms. Thatcher:
We grieve on behalf of Sally Smith, employee #123456 because she was denied first
choice of vacation for July of this year. That first choice was awarded to Parm Dhaliwal
who is junior to Sally Smith. Sally is senior to Parm by 3 years.
Pursuant to Article 12.5 (c) which requires that “employees shall be awarded vacation
choices based on departmental seniority” we say that Sally is the senior employee. As
remedy we request that Sally be awarded first choice of vacation for July of this year.
We look forward to your early response to our grievance. If you have any questions
regarding this matter please contact me.
Regards
Ajay Deol,
Shop Steward