As a new or continuing Member of the Grievance Committee or Executive Committee, you need to be familiar with the material provided in the documents “A Guide to Grievances for StFXAUT Members” and “Grievance Procedures in the University Environment: A Manual for Case Officers of the StFXAUT Grievance Committee” (Members will receive their own copy of the manual at a CAUT Grievance Workshop). These documents will give you the knowledge of the grievance handling process and necessary background information on grievances. Feel free to discuss any issues in any of these documents with other Grievance Officers if you have any questions.
The CAUT website has a database of closed arbitration cases from Universities across Canada (CAUT Arbitration Database). When you are handling a case it could be very useful to check on similar cases on the website. You will need a password to gain access and you should request it from the StFXAUT President or a Grievance Officer who has the password.
In all your work in handling complaints or grievances from our Members, it is imperative to always remember and act out our commitment to strict confidentiality, duty of fair representation, and conflict of interest and bias prevention. If you are a case leader, it will be very helpful if you organize any case material in a binder or folder. The binder or folder may be obtained from one of the Co-Chief Grievance Officers, Dr. Christie Lomore or Dr. Stephen Finbow. The case documents should be summarized and organized on the Grievance Officer Fact Sheet. In fact these Grievance Officer Fact Sheets may be distributed to Grievance Officers to give them background information before meeting to discuss the case. It is also essential to provide the Co-Chief Grievance Officers with information to update the grievance stages time limits.
The Committee holds two kinds of meetings. General meetings to discuss general grievance matters are used to discuss the role and function, and policies and procedures for the Committee. Special meetings take place to hear and/or to discuss a case. The resulting minutes are strictly confidential.
Recommended Resources:
LUFA Grievance Policy: Laurentian University Faculty Association Grievance Policy Paper. Good write-up on issues of conflict of interest and confidentiality.
The Duty of Fair Representation: A Handbook for Union Representatives: This explains duty of fair representation.
The Principles of Natural Justice: This is a Canadian Common Law document. It describes the rules of natural justice.
Western Grievance Manual: The University of Western Ontario Grievance Handling Manual. Well written document which has been adapted to the StFXAUT.