Category: Grievances
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The high costs of not grieving
Seven things union members lose when they don’t file a grievance By Wendy Lee, Local 575, inSolidarity Committee In every unionized workplace, the collective agreement is more than just a contract— it’s the foundation of fairness, job security, and dignity on the job. But when union members fail to enforce their rights by not filing…
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Case Comment: How Long Do Settlements Last?
Locals in OPSEU SEFPO frequently come to agreements with Employers on the best way to implement Collective Agreement rights and procedures between bargaining cycles. This is a fairly predictable need – sometimes only when the parties are implementing a new right do they realize that it looks different from what they were expecting. The parties…
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Case Comment: Without prejudice: a cautionary tale of two forgotten words
The worker who files a grievance has choices along the way about how it gets resolved. The grievor can agree to resolve the issue through a negotiated settlement agreement, can choose to proceed to an arbitration hearing where an arbitrator will issue a final and binding legal decision on the grievance, or at any time…
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Issue Comment: What to do with a late grievance
Filed a grievance late? The Arbitrator has the power to extend the timelines Most, if not all, collective agreements provide a timeline within which a worker is permitted to file a grievance. Some Collective Agreement provide a generous timeline, such as 30 days in the Ontario Public Service, others as little as seven days in…
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Grievance Arbitrations: Frequently Asked Questions
So your Grievance is finally headed to Arbitration, but you have questions. How do you prepare, what is involved, and what is an arbitration, anyway? What should I wear at the arbitration? Arbitration days, both in person and virtual, are business casual. While your representative will likely be wearing a suit or a variation of…
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Region 4 week-long arbitration course Oct 21 – 25
Event dates: Oct. 21 – 25, 2024 Location: Kingston Membership Centre, 824 John Counter Blvd, Kingston, ON K7K 2R1 Application form: Please download and complete this form Application deadline: Applications must be received at the region4@opseu.org email address no later than Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. After the grievance procedure has been exhausted, an unresolved grievance…
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Case Comment: Safety on your own time?
In November 2021, in a stated attempt to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the OPS including the Ministry of the Solicitor General and the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services introduced the “Ontario Public Service COVID-19 Safe Workplace Directive”. The Directive required mandatory COVID-19 rapid antigen testing for all unvaccinated staff entering…
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Case Comment: Legal timelines run whether the Employer – or the Union – wants them to or not
In any Collective Agreement, the grievance procedure will include required steps and timelines for those steps. Employers love to make technical legal arguments and try to avoid dealing with the real problem a worker is raising at the heart of a grievance. It’s important for the Union to stay on our toes about procedures, as…
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New grievance form and guidelines will help you and your co-workers enforce your contract
The OPSEU/SEFPO Grievance Form has been given a fresh update for the first time in decades. The changes are subtle but important to polish up this tool to enforce the rights workers have fought for and won in their contracts and legislation. The revised form is cleaner and more streamlined, to eliminate duplication and unnecessary…
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Inventory for Building A Strong Grievance
PDF version OPSEU/SEFPO Arbitrations Unit Consider each of these elements to make sure you are helping the Grievor to build the best case to enforce their rights with the Employer and get what they need from the process. Explore all of your tools Have you considered ways to resolve the problem other than with a…
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Case Comment: Workers fight to respect the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation Holiday
In 2021, the Federal government enacted Bill C-5 to create a new federal holiday to be observed on September 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The purpose was to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action #80 by creating a holiday which seeks to honour First Nations, Inuit…
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Case Comment: Protecting Precarious Employment
In the College sector, partial-load Academic employees deal with a form of precarious employment that involves a series of semester long contracts. Because the work is divided into contracts which last a few months and are episodic in nature, disputes naturally arise with the Employer about what rights these workers have to further work, to…
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Fighting the WSIB’s Alarming Record of Denying Chronic Mental Stress Claims
The fight to advance workers’ rights includes pushing to expand and enforce just compensation for injured workers. On one front, some progress has been won to recognize chronic mental stress as a compensable workplace injury in Ontario in recent years. But the large number of denials for chronic mental stress claims have left workers without…
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OPS workers force Ontario government to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
After Canada’s Governor General proclaimed September 30 a federal holiday in honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021, the Ontario Government refused to recognize the holiday for Ontario Public Service (OPS) employees in 2022. It was a shameful move on the part of the Ford government, given that the time for…
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Case Comment: How the “precautionary principle” allowed TDSB to put some workers on unpaid leave
COVID-19 has been a complex challenge for employers – and unions – to balance the rights and interests of workers in the face of a global pandemic. In a key decision in March of 2022, the well-respected arbitrator William Kaplan issued a decision about a grievance filed by CUPE Local 4400 against a COVID policy…
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Classic Case Comment: Challenging Employers’ rules with the “KVP test”
OPSEU/SEFPO members often want to know when and how they can use the grievance process to challenge unreasonable Employer edicts. Arbitrators have ruled that Employers do have the legal power to issue policies and rules unilaterally under their right to manage the workplace. But this power is not without limitations. There are circumstances in which…
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Pension to the Max – Deciding when it’s best to begin receiving payments
“Normal retirement age” in Canada is age 65. This is when you can begin to collect your full Canada Pension (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS), and employer pension payments. You may choose to continue working and delay receiving your pension payment. But you can’t delay your pension payments forever. Income Tax Act regulations mean you…
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Welcome to The Contract Enforcement BLAWG!
What’s a Blawg? A Blawg is an online journal or blog dealing with topics related to the law. This Blawg will contain posts with tidbits of legal info you might find useful in your toolbox for building worker power within OPSEU/SEFPO. Various staff in the Contract Enforcement Division will contribute posts on useful cases and…