According to Jucius, “A grievance is any discontent or dissatisfaction, whether expressed or not, whether valid or not, arising out of anything connected with the company which an employee thinks, believes or even feels to be unfair, unjust or inequitable”. According to Rigors and Myers, dissatisfaction is anything that disturbs and employee, whether he expresses it in words or not.
A complaint is a spoken or written dissatisfaction which is brought to the notice of the management or trade union representatives.
A grievance* on the other hand, is simply a complaint which has been ignored, over-ridden or, in the employee’s opinion, dismissed without consideration; and the employee feels that an injustice has been done, particularly when the complaint was presented in writing to a management representative or to a trade union official.
The International Labour Organisation defines a grievance as “A complaint of one or more workers in respect of wages, allowances, conditions of work and interpretation of service stipulations, covering such areas as overtime, leave, transfer, promotion, seniority, job assignment and termination of service.”