REPORT
ON THE CAUT GRIEVANCE OFFICERS’ WORKSHOP
Grievance officers were arranged at tables,
with each table holding about eight grievance officers from schools of roughly
similar size. This organization
facilitated a great deal of useful discussion and sharing of strategies.
The main topics within the general theme were
member vs. member disputes, workplace stress/bullying, and both mental health
and mental disability issues. The first
session on member vs. member disputes addressed the union’s responsibilities in
such cases, and it offered strategies for dealing with these cases in a way
that prevents the union from taking sides in disputes between members. The core of the recommended strategy concerns
the union’s role in forcing the employer to satisfy its duties to investigate
such disputes in a thorough manner, as well as its duty to maintain a safe and
appropriate work environment that is free from wrongful discrimination and
harassment. After this session
individual tables went to a breakout session where they were encouraged to
discuss their own approaches to grievance issues, member vs. member disputes in
particular.
The third session focused on recent data
concerning workplace stress. The session
paid particular attention to the phenomena of bullying, and there was a great
of discussion concerning the identification of bullying and the classification
of grievances based on accusation of bullying.
The fourth and fifth sessions were dedicated to
mental health and mental disability issues.
We received a general prep regarding mental illness and depression. We also received a very detailed account of
union and employer duties regarding the accommodation of mental illness and
mental disability.
Session six provided an overview of a few
recent cases, handled by CAUT locales, concerning vulnerable grievors.
The final session dealt with the task of
recruiting and training new grievance officers.
There was a substantial discussion of the viability of training members
to argue cases at arbitration as a strategy for lowering costs of arbitration
(fees for legal counsel). We also
reviewed the current CAUT Grievance Handling Workshop.
Marc Ramsay