Apr 19, 2024  
ACE Employee Handbook 2020 
    
ACE Employee Handbook 2020 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Employee Concerns, Complaints & Retaliation


American College of Education provides fair, consistent and equitable procedures for addressing employee concerns and complaints.

You are expected and advised to first pursue a resolution for the concern or complaint informally through a discussion with the person or department manager where the issue originated. In most cases, you are expected to initiate a good faith effort to resolve the issue through discussion with the individual involved. Typically, the issue will be equitability resolved informally. If the issue is not resolved, you may elect to elevate the issue/s into the formal procedure. If the problem is not resolved informally, you must contact Human Resources for further directions on the procedures for a formal complaint. Human Resources will handle your inquiry confidentially as much as possible.

You will need to provide in writing documentation of the specific type of complaint, facts of the issue and steps taken to resolve. If the situation involved activities that are illegal in nature and warrants the involvement of law enforcement authorities, Human Resources will advocate for you. If a college employee should be placed on administrative leave during an investigation, Human Resources will manage the process.

  • All formal employee complaints will be recorded in a confidential log with Human Resources and forwarded to the College official responsible for the area in which the issue occurred.

a. The confidential log will include the following:

i. The date of the complaint

ii. The nature of the complaint with supporting documentation

iii. The steps taken to resolve the complaint

iv. The decision

b. The information will be made available to regulatory agencies upon request for the purpose of investigating individual complaints elevated to the agency; or to provide mandated reporting assurances that ACE has procedures in place for timely and fair resolution of complaints.

  • The College official will have thirty (30) days from the time stamp on the complaint form to investigate the formal complaint, and render a decision. The decision will be communicated to you.
  • You may appeal the decision in writing to Human Resources within 10 business days.
  • A final decision will be rendered within 30 days from the date the appeal is received.

Retaliation

ACE will promptly investigate all complaints. No employee will be retaliated against for making a complaint about harassment or discrimination, or for participating in the investigation of such a complaint. We consider retaliation to be a serious violation of this policy and urge you to report any incidents of retaliation immediately to HR. We will investigate and resolve complaints of retaliation in accordance with standard investigative practices.