Grievances

  
 
The grievance procedure is the tool we use to enforce the contract.   You should contact an MSCA officer (Grievance Officer Sandy Faiman-Silva or myself) if an error occurs in your evaluation so that we can try to fix it and file a grievance if necessary.   You'll be defending the rights of other members as well as your own.		  
 
Don't wait: grievances must be submitted within ten working days of the incident being grieved.

Academic judgment is not grievable unless it is arbitrary, capricious, and/or done in bad faith.  If a grievance based on academic judgment goes to arbitration, it is very difficult to prove  arbitrariness, capriciousness, and/or (especially) bad faith.   		 
 
The collective bargaining agreement places very serious limitations on the powers of arbitrators. 

Grievances can be resolved through on-campus hearings:

Step I with the Vice President or designee.

Step II with the President or designee. 

When that brings no satisfactory resolution, the MSCA state-wide Grievance Committee (Maggie Vaughn, Salem State College, Chairperson) decides whether to take the grievance to Step III  by submitting it for mediation and/or arbitration  Alternatively it may refer the grievance to the ERC (Employee Relations Committee) in the hope that it will be settled there.  At any point in the process a negotiated settlement may occur. 

 
   

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