Terms of Reference

An Institutional Grievance is defined as a complaint by an employee or student concerning a decision or action that is perceived to adversely affect the grievant in her or his professional academic capacity.Generally the grievance will arise out of a specific issue, but occasionally the cause for concern may be an ongoing series of issues cumulatively effect for the basis of grievance. The written grievances should be submitted in sealed double envelopes where the inner envelop addressed to the Grievance Committee and outer envelope addressed to the Director, Institute of Indigenous Medicine, University of Colombo. Accordingly the committee function as an independent body comprised of persons who are not current employees of the Institute of Indigenous Medicine who would perform according to the following guidelines.

• The Grievance committee determine whether the formal written grievance submitted by the
  members of the institute has a matter that is within the jurisdiction of the committee and if so,to hear the grievance.
• Members of the Grievance Committee are expected to attend the initial orientation meeting and scheduled hearing dates to discuss the cases that have been forwarded.
• Members of the committee must at all times maintain a neutral status vis-à-vis the parties to
  the grievance and must be fair impartial decision makers with high level of integrity and trust.
• The Committee’s role is to listen and review all testimony and documentary evidence presented
  during the hearing to make a decision based on the evidence presented by each party.
• Committee members must be open minded and not presume that either party to the grievance is right or wrong. They should be able to weigh the credibility of the evidence, make specific findings of fact and determine whether the grievant has established the charges.
• The grievance procedure require at least three members form the grievance committee to hear
  the grievance and decides the action while a non-voting chair presides over the process.
• The Committee is responsible for making written findings of facts and recommendations with regard to the grievance and assist chair in finalizing the written report of the committee’s
  decision.
• The committee must maintain confidential records for each case.
• It is important to ensure that the process that is followed by the grievance committee is fundamentally fair to all parties and complies with the university procedures.

The grievance hearing consists of the following phases:
1. Initial meeting of the grievance committee for familiarization with the case
2. The hearing of the grievance
3. Deliberations by the committee
4. Writing the decision

The initial meeting provides an opportunity for the chair to acquaint committee members with the grievance process and answer any questions about the process before meeting with the parties. At this initial meeting the committee reviews the grievance petition to determine whether the grievance
committee has jurisdiction over the grievance. If the grievance is not dismissed, the initial meeting is followed by the grievance hearing, deliberations and writing of the committee decision. Committee decisions are forwarded to the Director of Institute of Indigenous Medicine in the form of a
recommendation.