What is a Grievance? (Part 2)

This blog entry was actually posted on December 9, 2015.

This article is from the WLUFA Advocate 1.2 December 2012.

Sheila McKee-Protopapas,
WLUFA Executive Director, Biology

A common misunderstanding is that a grievance has occurred when one of your colleagues does something that you don’t like.

Not all conflicts in an academic setting represent a grievance. In addition, what members perceive to be a grievance is often the University exercising its managerial rights.
If there is no breach of the Collective Agreement, there is no grievance. However, if you have concerns and think that you have grounds to file a grievance you should contact the WLUFA Office as soon as possible.

There are strict time limits for filing a grievance so the sooner we are aware of the circumstances the better. I would urge you to contact WLUFA immediately if you have a concern about a possible grievance issue.

There have been several important changes in our grievance procedures recently.
Under the new Full-time Collective Agreement, WLUFA now has carriage of all grievances with respect to full-time members. That means if a full-time member believes the University’s actions constitute a violation of the Collective Agreement, he/she makes a request to the WLUFA Grievance Committee to carry the grievance forward.

The Grievance Committee consists of trained grievance officers from both bargaining units. The Committee discusses the case and votes to determine whether or not to go ahead with the grievance.

The over-riding concern is whether or not there has been, or might have been, a violation of the Collective Agreement. This is the normal model for grievance procedures.

For contract academics, the situation is somewhat different in that these members still have carriage of the grievance at Step I and Step II.

The Grievance Committee still discusses the case, but the member is the one who determines whether or not he/she wants to file a grievance.

In both bargaining units, if a grievance is filed, a grievance officer is assigned to the case and the process begins.

For further information, see the new Grievance page on the WLUFA website, and Article 22 of the CAS and Article 27 of the Full-time collective agreements.