Section EMP.01.05 — Employee Appeals To Tribal Court

(a) As a part of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community's commitment to protect the rights of its employees and promote a stable working environment, the following appeal process is made available to each employee:

(1) Only violations of those employee rights enumerated in Section EMP.01.03 of this Ordinance are appealable to the Tribal Court. All other issues must be handled through the applicable internal dispute resolution process, which may be a grievance process or an employee mediation panel, as provided for in the Employment Manual. The internal dispute resolution process shall be the final recourse for all issues not expressly enumerated in Section EMP.01.03.

(2) The employee must exhaust the applicable internal dispute resolution process before the Tribal Court appeal process will be available to him or her.

(A) In cases of employee terminations, the employee may choose to waive the internal dispute resolution process and file a claim directly with the Tribal Court.

(B) In all other cases, where the employee can demonstrate to the Human Resources Director or his or her designee, that exhaustion of the internal dispute resolution process would not further the process of resolving the problem, for whatever reason, then the requirement may be waived by the Human Resource Director and the appeal may be taken directly to Tribal Court.