Pickens County Grievance Committee

Purpose: Addresses appeals of employees following the denial of their grievances by department heads.

Enabling Legislation: On April 13, 2009, Resolution 99-13 was amended to state that the Council will not appoint members of this committee, and staff will appoint employees as needed. This procedure is adopted in accordance with the “County and Municipal Employees Grievance Procedure Act,” Section 8-17-110 et seq., Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1976, as amended, and supersedes any previous grievance procedure adopted by the Pickens County Council.

The county council shall appoint a committee composed of seven (7) employees, five (5) of which shall be regular committee members and two (2) of which shall be alternates, to serve for terms of three (3) years, except that the members appointed initially shall be appointed so that their terms will be staggered. A member shall continue to serve after the expiration of his/her term until a successor is appointed. Any interim appointment to fill a vacancy for any cause prior to the completion of a member’s term shall be for the unexpired term. All members shall be selected on a broadly representative basis from among county employees. Members employed in the same department as the grieving employee and members having formed an opinion of the issues prior to the hearing, shall not participate in that employee’s hearing. An alternate or alternates shall serve in the place of committee member(s) on a particular grievance in instances when members are not eligible to serve. No member shall be appointed to serve more than two (2) full consecutive terms on the grievance committee. Previous service for a full term shall be counted in determining a member’s service on the committee for purposes of the limitations established by this section, but partial terms shall not be considered a consecutive term for purposes of the limitation contained in this section. No member shall be reappointed to the committee after serving two (2) full consecutive terms until a minimum of one (1) year has elapsed since the last service of such member on the committee.

More information about the Grievance process is available in the Pickens County Employee Handbook.