The mission of the West Virginia Public Employees Grievance Board is to provide a fair, consistent, and expedient administrative process for resolving employment disputes between the employers and employees of the state’s executive branch, public institutions of higher education, county boards of education, and county health departments.
In 1985, the Legislature created the Education Employees Grievance Board to provide education employees and employers a process for resolving problems in the employment relationship. In 1988, the Board was renamed the Education and State Employees Grievance Board and its purpose expanded to include employees of the State's Executive Branch.
In 2007, §§ 6C-2-1 et seq., West Virginia Public Employees Grievance Procedure, was signed into law "to provide a procedure for the resolution of employment grievances raised by public employees" in the belief that resolving them "in a fair, efficient, cost-effective and consistent manner will maintain good employee morale, enhance employee job performance and better serve the citizens of the State of West Virginia.
§§ 6C-3-1 et seq., West Virginia Public Employees Grievance Board, was adopted concurrently with §§ 6C-2-1 et seq., expanding the Board's composition to five members. These members, appointed by the Governor for specific terms, represent each of the following groups: 1) the largest labor organization in the state; 2) an education employee organization in the state; 3) an employer from the executive branch; 4) an employer from secondary or higher education; and 5) a citizen member who is not a current employee, employer or a representative of employees in a government or education workplace.
These Board members maintain jurisdiction over procedural matters in the grievance process; hire the Board's employees; establish forms and procedures for the grievance process; evaluate the grievance process and compile data on outcomes and costs of the process at all levels. The Board employs Administrative Law Judges, who are members in good standing of the West Virginia State Bar, to conduct mediations and level three evidentiary hearings, and to issue decisions which are appealable to the Intermediate Court of Appeals and enforceable in the circuit court situated in the judicial district in which the grievant is employed.