Report from the Board: LLLI Grievance Procedure for Leaders
Nan Jolly
LLLI Board of Directors Chair
Grievance Procedure Committee
From: LEAVEN, Vol. 36 No. 2, April-May 2000, p. 18.
When a Leader has a complaint
within La Leche League, she takes that issue to her support person and
they work together to achieve resolution. Sometimes, others in the chain
of communication will need to be called upon to assist in this process.
In most instances, the issue is resolved at one of these levels. Occasionally,
however, the Leader is not satisfied or still feels aggrieved after
the administrative alternatives have been exhausted. Until now, there
has been no avenue to further pursue resolution.
LLLI recognizes that unresolved
grievances can reduce a Leader's enthusiasm to carry out her Leader
work and reduce her ability to help mothers breastfeed. There are even
instances where Leaders have retired after an unsatisfactory grievance
resolution. Unresolved grievances take precious time and energy - energy
that is more appropriately directed toward our organizational purpose
of helping mothers breastfeed. While these situations may be few in
number, the disruption which may come to all involved caused LLLI to
recognize that a formal method of dealing with grievances was needed.
In July 1999 the LLLI Board
of Directors instituted a Grievance Procedure for Leaders and a Grievance
Commission (GC) was appointed at the March 2000 Board meeting. The Grievance
Commission is headed by a Coordinator who then appoints members from
a pool approved by the LLLI Board of Directors. Members of the commission
reflect the diversity of La Leche League and include Leaders with a
wide variety of expertise. This body will review grievances from Leaders
that have not been resolved by the usual administrative support structure
and will seek a resolution that is satisfactory to all concerned.
Who may file a grievance?
Any Leader in any Division
or Affiliate may file a grievance. Some Affiliates have a grievance
or other procedure to address Leader's issues within that Affiliate.
Leader Applicants have an appeal procedure available within the Leader
Accreditation Process.
When may she file a grievance?
Grievances may be filed within
a year of the last attempt to resolve the issue through the usual and
appropriate channels of communication. The older a complaint gets, the
harder it becomes to resolve.
What kind of issues will
come to the Grievance Commission?
The GC will deal only with
issues arising from implementation of LLLI policy. This will not be
the appropriate place to bring personal differences or conflicts arising
from issues outside LLL work. Disagreement with policies established
by the LLLI Board of Directors should be addressed directly with the
Board; those issues are not grounds for a grievance.
How should a grievance be
submitted?
Grievances should be submitted
in writing to the Coordinator of the Grievance Commission. Please indicate
explicitly on the envelope and in the header of the letter that a grievance
is enclosed. This will minimize delays and avoid confusion.
What will happen next?
The Coordinator will review
the grievance to assure that all appropriate resources in the communication
chain have been used. In some instances, she may be able to facilitate
access by the Leader with the grievance to additional useful resources
within the administrative structure.
After receiving the grievance,
the Coordinator will notify all parties involved and designate a facilitator
to work on this particular grievance. Specific members of the GC will
be identified as available to work on this grievance. All parties involved
in the grievance will have the opportunity to indicate any GC member
with whom they are unwilling to work.
Once the group working on
this particular grievance is designated, they will consult and collaborate
with Leaders, staff, administrators and the LLLI Board as appropriate
to give a fair hearing to all concerned and attempt to facilitate the
resolution. The facilitator may request access to relevant files and
will make them available to all parties as needed, respecting the confidentiality
of those not directly involved in the grievance.
For economic reasons, we
hope most of this work can be done through mail - electronically wherever
possible. There may be instances where personal meetings are desirable
if agreement can be reached about sharing the expense. If, after two
years, it appears that resolution cannot be reached, or when organizational
resources are unavailable to pursue the issue any further, the GC may
decide to terminate the proceedings.
The Commission will report
regularly, and may suggest action, to the LLLI Board of Directors. Since
this is the first time this procedure will be implemented, we cannot
be certain exactly how this will work in practice. Details may change
as we gain experience and face some of the practicalities involved.
The LLLI Grievance Procedure
policy is set forth in Appendix 40 of the LLLI Policies and Standing
Rules Notebook which has been widely distributed throughout our administrative
structure. A copy of the Grievance Procedure should be available from
your support person, by request from any LLLI Board member, or on the
LLLI Web site, www.lalecheleague.org/leaderpages/PSRappend40.html
(requires Leader password).
Grievance Commission Coordinator
At their Annual Meeting in
March 2000, the LLLI Board of Directors appointed a Grievance Commission
Coordinator, who will be ready to receive grievances after June 1, 2000.
She is Trudy Hartt. Her address is 302 Acadia Drive, Beaconsfield, Quebec,
H9W 2K2 Canada. Tel: 514.695.8617 Fax: 514.695.1979 email: tch9 at johnabbott.qc.ca
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:32:09 UTC 2007.
