Opinion ID: 2805601
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The ARHA Grievance Procedure

Text: Under Virginia law, a local redevelopment and housing authority has the option to include its employees in the locality's grievance procedure 9 or to adopt its own procedure specifically applicable to the authority's employees. See Code § 15.2-1507(A)(4). ARHA elected to adopt its own procedure. The ARHA grievance procedure takes a grievant through various, informal stages of dispute resolution. Step 1 involves a written response by ARHA to the assertions in the grievance. If dissatisfied with this response, the grievant may challenge it in Step 2, which includes a review by the department director. Step 3 involves a written appeal to maturing of suits or actions may be reviewed and corrected by the court.); cf. Martin P. Burks, Common Law & Statutory Pleading & Practice § 50, at 108 (T. Munford Boyd, ed., 4th ed. 1952) (noting that a clerical mistake of the clerk cannot prejudice the litigants). 8 This appeal does not require us to address whether, and to what extent, the failure to tender certain fees renders a physically delivered pleading incapable of being filed. See generally Landini v. Bil-Jax, Inc., Record No. 140591 (Jan. 30, 2015) (unpublished). 9 Under Code § 15.2-1507(A), a locality may adopt its own employee grievance procedure consistent with Code § 15.2-1506 or be deemed to have adopted the grievance procedure applicable to state employees, Code § 2.2-3000 et seq. 10 ARHA's chief executive officer. The final stage initiates a formal arbitration hearing in which the arbitrator has authority to enter a binding determination. Both parties have compliance duties during the final stage. The arbitration procedure details the process of selecting an arbitrator, scheduling a hearing, conducting an evidentiary hearing, and obtaining a ruling from the arbitrator. The first compliance duty is selecting an arbitrator. The grievance procedure specifies that both parties shall pick an arbitrator by striking names from a panel of potential arbitrators provided by the independent arbitration service. This task must be completed [w]ithin thirty days of receiving the panel. After the process of striking the names from the panel leaves one arbitrator remaining, the arbitration may be scheduled.