What is a Grievance?

This blog entry was actually posted on December 3, 2015.

This article is from WLUFA Advocate 1.1 October 2012.

Sheila McKee-Protopapas,
Grievance Co-ordinator

The definition of a grievance is the same in both WLUFA Collective Agreements:
grievance: is any dispute or difference arising out of the application, interpretation, administration, or alleged violation of the provisions of this Agreement.

It is important to note that a grievance can only be filed against your employer. You cannot grieve against other members of your own bargaining unit or against employees in other bargaining units (whether faculty or staff). For faculty, this means that grievances are always filed against either the Dean or the Vice-President: Academic. Grievances can be further broken down into individual or association.

An individual grievance means there was a specific breach of the Collective Agreement involving one person (occasionally more than one person). An association grievance is filed if there is a widespread practice that involves, or could involve, several members or a group of members. All individual grievances start at Step I unless they fall under certain articles that are automatically grieved at Step II. Association grievances are filed at Step II.
A Step I grievance is heard by the Dean of the relevant Faculty and a Step II grievance is heard by the Vice-President: Academic. The next stage after Step II is arbitration, which is a lengthy and costly process that can only occur after Step II is completed, and it requires permission from the WLUFA Executive Committee.