Debbie Rebeiro – Handling Grievances Workshop

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Handling Grievances Workshop Report (CUPE course)

Friday, June 21st, 2013, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Ottawa Area Office, Ottawa

Facilitator: Kim Monette (CUPE Local 4000 – Health Care Workers)

Reported by Debbie Rebeiro

The course was a part of a two-day workshop ‘Introduction to Stewarding – Handling Grievances’. I attended a part of it to learn about ‘Handling Grievances’ since I had done earlier the ‘Stewarding’ part by itself.

The following are my notes:

  • Types of grievances were discussed:
  1. Individual
  2. Group
  3. Policy/Union Grievance
  • How to investigate a grievance and get the facts. CUPE /COPE has a grievance form which can be used to record facts.
  • Ask member for authority to view their personnel file. Get all records and history of any discipline in the past, etc.
  • All facts must be properly recorded.
  • After investigation is done, if possible try to fix the problem before filing a grievance.

What is a grievance? was role played – by experienced steward (in role) training a new steward (in role).

A grievance is when the employer is in violation of:   A Collective Agreement

Article No.

Health & Safety is violated

Workplace Policy is violated

A legislation is violated

Full redress and rectify if possible.

An exercise on ‘How to fill out a grievance form’ was done.

Mock grievance meetings were role played.

‘Non-effective grievance meeting’ vs ‘Effective grievance meeting’ with the Employer were role-played to show the difference in effectiveness.

The workshop went well and was good.

dr/cope 491

June 24, 2013