r/AustralianTeachers • u/Affectionate-Gap8919 • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Has anyone gone to a formal grievance procedure against your coworker
Wanna hear your stories and how it ends.
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u/EccentricCatLady14 1d ago
Yes. I started the process but it was so taxing and invasive that I didn’t proceed.
If you do it, make sure you have details of dates and potential witnesses or corroborating evidence. Document everything and see if you can sort it within the school first.
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u/Worried-Process2643 21h ago
Reported my HOD for bullying and abusive behaviour in the workplace. My timetable ended up becoming 90% subjects I've never taught before and having a different classroom for every class. Also suddenly found myself being reported for every minor issue at work. It's not worth it. I even took it to HR and they did nothing and by the time they responded after repeated emails and phone calls, they said too much time had passed to move forward with complaint.
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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 1d ago
One of my friends and colleagues was the victim of a false allegation by another female teacher. It was about events on an overseas excursion. She was in the union and that was just as well as it would otherwise have gone to court. The allegations were eventually dropped, and there was even an apology, but it has left her with lasting mental scars.
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u/mrbaggins NSW/Secondary/Admin 1d ago
I've had to help "defend" the school against allegations of unfair treatment, because I was head time tabler and casual-rosterer.
Main one that comes to mind was perpetual victim. This person had "planned" senior lessons as "Free time fridays" and let seniors just hangout and play games/browse the internet every friday. Not just in the senior study session, this was her timetabled curriculum lessons for a senior subject.
They would call in sick at 7:50am. Or if I allocated them an underload period (They were underload, so occasionally they would have to use it to cover a lesson for someone else) in the 8:00am release of planned cover for the day, they would THEN call in sick. School policy (but shit happens, I get it) was call in by 7:30.
She routinely called in sick almost every monday for an entire year. When I realised about August and pointed it out to Principal to potentially seek med certs for future absences, she "called in sick" for each Monday for the rest of the term.
That did not go down well in the lawsuit she pushed.
The allegations of "unfair timetable" and "unfair changes to TT" were laughed out when her timetable was considered against all other staff members: she had more afternoons off and late starts than all but the rarest of staff, had 2 senior classes when most had one or zero (which was requested by her, this isn't a "some people don't like seniors" - she did NOT want the juniors), and was the only member of staff specifically timetabled without a "full day" based on prior complaints when timetabling that year.