30-18 Grievance and Appeal

Policy Description

It is the policy of the State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education (SBTCE) to grant the right to those “covered” employees, as contemplated in S.C. Code Ann. § 8-17-320 (7), to present formal grievance appeals through the Grievance Appeals Process. This process allows employees to seek redress without fear of restraint, interference, coercion, discrimination, or reprisal. Classified employees, unclassified non-teaching personnel, and institutional officers, excluding the College President, attain covered status upon having satisfactorily completed their initial twelve (12) months probationary period. Faculty personnel attain covered status upon having satisfactorily completed their initial probationary period of two (2) full academic years duration.

1. The System President of the South Carolina Technical College System (SCTCS) fully expects that all employees will abide by and make appropriate use of the policies and procedures established herein. Within the agency this grievance procedure is informal in nature and does not become an adversarial procedure until it reaches the South Carolina State Employee Grievance Committee. Employees who are hired in temporary positions, (either full-time or part-time), adjunct faculty, temporary grant positions, returning retirees or time-limited employees, and those hired in FTE positions but have not yet attained covered status may only file informal complaints regarding matters that are neither grievable nor appealable.

2. Matters arising from alleged acts of discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, or related medical condition), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information or any other protected classes deemed unlawful under the State or Federal law and certain legally defined disabilities may be filed within the agency, the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

1. Reference procedure #8-2-102.1 (Compensation Plan for Unclassified Faculty Personnel) for definition of the faculty probationary period.

2. Employees with matters that are neither grievable nor appealable through the formal grievance and appeal policy; and/or employees who have not attained covered status, may only file informal complaints with their Human Resource Officer. Each College must develop its own process for handling informal complaints.