OVERVIEW

1. MWF is committed to continuous service improvement based upon a culture in which people feel comfortable in submitting a grievance and confident that their issues will be addressed fairly, as promptly as possible, accurately, sensitively and without recourse where the grievance has been submitted in good faith.
2. This commitment to a fair, efficient and effective grievance management system is championed by the MWF Board, the General Manager and by all sections of the organisation.

SCOPE

3. This document applies to all MWF representatives, participants and guests.

PROCEDURE

Principles

4. MWF is committed to:
   1. providing opportunities to resolve grievances without the immediate need to engage outside agencies;
   2. making the resolution process as streamlined as possible and readily accessible to everyone;
   3. ensuring appropriate confidentiality is maintained;
   4. adhering to the principles of natural justice and the protection of rights for all;
   5. encouraging the resolution of grievances as close as possible to their origin;
   6. the timely solution of grievances and appeals;
   7. the availability of MWF representatives to resolve issues in the first instance;
   8. ensuring that those who submit a grievance will not be subjected to any penalty providing the grievance is made with an honest belief in its merit. No MWF Representative, participant or guest shall suffer any form of detriment for his/her participation in submitting, supporting or resolving a grievance;
   9. ensuring that this policy does not remove rights of redress through the NSW Ombudsman or any statutory agency; and
   10. ensuring that grievances involving alleged criminal activity are reported to the Police or other relevant authority.
5. All MWF Representatives, participants and guests have access to an effective grievance process that enables them to lodge a grievance about any aspect of MWF’s activities.
6. The formal grievance process must be recorded in writing and submitted to the MWF General Manager.
7. Grievances may be submitted anonymously but, depending on their nature and the requirements of natural justice, their resolution may be limited or not possible. An anonymous grievance may be where the aggrieved person requests that his/her identity not be revealed to the responding person or does not identify him/herself when lodging a grievance. While MWF may accept anonymous grievances it cannot guarantee the anonymity of the aggrieved person because the identity of an aggrieved person can be deduced from the nature of the grievance and also because there are statutory pathways avenues through which the identity of the aggrieved person(s) can be required to be revealed. Anonymous grievances may also contain insufficient information for it to be pursued.
8. Any interference with the application of this policy including:
   1. falsification, distortion or misrepresentation of information before an inquiring officer; and/or
   2. disruption to, or interference with, the orderly conduct of an inquiry; and/or
   3. attempting to discourage an individual’s proper participation in the application of this policy; and/or
   4. attempting to influence the impartiality of an inquiring officer prior to or during the course of, an inquiry; and/or
   5. harassment or intimidation of an inquiring officer, MWF representative, participant or guest prior to, during, or after an inquiry may become the subject of disciplinary proceedings.

Appeals

9. The MWF Leadership Group is the primary unit for the recording of formal written appeals.
10. An appeal must be submitted within 10 working days under which the appeal is being managed.

Statutory agencies

11. These procedures do not affect any rights a person may have to submit a grievance to an appropriate outside agency at any time (for example, NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, NSW Ombudsman, NSW Anti- Discrimination Board, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal).