Complaint Procedures Are Confusing
For years, Washington State University has had a smorgasbord of offices to hear the complaints of the aggrieved.
There’s an ombudsman, a Women’s Center and a Human Rights Center, supervisors, department heads and deans.
But a complaint filed by six women alleging discrimination and retaliation suggests the university’s local brain trust is stumped when trying to settle differences between employees.
One problem, raised by the women and supported by several other college officials, has rattled around the university for years: Someone with a complaint seems to have everywhere to go; in reality they have nowhere to go. With no centralized outlet or office, someone who feels victimized also feels adrift in the bureaucracy.
“We want to have a place where people don’t have to go to five places to find out where they’re supposed to go,” said Dean Guenther, chairman of the Staff Senate Employee Relations Committee.
The ombudsman’s office is somewhat centralized, “but a lot of people don’t know anything about it,” Guenther said.
Human Resource Services, the main personnel agency and home of the Human Rights Center, can start them on a long process of referrals to other offices.
“You kind of get the feeling there’s not anything well set up to handle complaints,” Guenther said.
One of the women involved in the federal complaint spent three years talking to Human Resource Services, the ombudsman, the Women’s Center, the Affirmative Action Office, the Washington State Employment Advisory Service, a supervisor and her dean - all without satisfaction. She recently was transferred to a secretarial job in the Puyallup extension office.
“No matter where you start in the network, the result is the same … nothing is resolved, no corrective measures are taken against the men, and the women are returned to work with their harassers,” the women said in their complaint to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
About two years ago, the Staff Senate asked the administration for a centralized office to field complaints. The proposal was forwarded to Human Resource Services and then back to the administration, Guenther said.
Without a centralized office, the school cannot compile accurate statistics on the types of problems it has, said Mary Gallwey, school ombudsman. Such an office could also provide a more objective review of cases, which are sometimes handled by people close to workers who disagree, she said.
Tom George, who as provost oversees the human resource offices, said the administration is considering having Gallwey’s office act as the central complaint bureau.
He defended the current system, arguing its Byzantine nature is sometimes used as an excuse when weak complaints are rejected.
“Some people know the system very well, extremely well,” he said. “They just haven’t gotten the end result that they want.
“It’s not taken very lightly at all. Is it perfect? No. It’s not perfect.”