July 2, 2008
No 3
Standing up for your rights at work
Filing a grievance is one of the most effective ways that you can stand up for your rights on the job, making a difference for everyone in the workplace. When PSAC/UPCE sits down at the bargaining table during this round of negotiations, we will be working hard to improve the grievance process at Canada Post, so that complaints can be resolved more quickly and efficiently.
Your collective agreement
Your collective agreement is the contract with Canada Post that union members fought hard for in previous rounds of negotiations. This contract spells out the gains that we made in protecting human rights, salaries, job security, vacation leave entitlements, benefits and the right to freedom from harassment, among many other issues.
Filing a grievance
The grievance procedure set out in your collective agreement allows you to formally address violations of your workplace rights.
We encourage members to address complaints informally before filing a grievance. But in cases where complaints can’t be resolved informally, workers have the right to file a grievance. Your local steward or local president can help you with filing a grievance.
Simply put, your grievance will describe the problem in writing, indicate what article of the collective agreement applies, and tell Canada Post how you want the problem to be fixed. This allows the union and management to discuss the issue that’s affecting you. It also requires management to give a written response at each level of the grievance process.
Grievances are important
While some grievances address individual problems in the workplace, all grievances contribute to the strength and power of the collective agreement. This ensures that all workers’ rights are protected. In some cases, UPCE/PSAC files policy grievances that seek to clarify or address issues that affect a large group of workers within the bargaining unit. In other cases, individual members use grievances to stand up for their rights at work, but the process that follows has the potential to set precedents that can improve working conditions for everyone.
Simplifying the process
For this round of bargaining, UPCE/PSAC is attempting to simplify the grievance language of Article 19 in our collective agreement, to make the process more accessible, timely and efficient. We also want to make it easier for members to resolve workplace problems as close as possible to the time an incident occurs in the workplace, while making effective provisions for more complicated and time-consuming cases that cannot be resolved and/or have more profound implications for our members.
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Date Modified : 2008/07/30
Public Service Alliance of Canada | 233, Gilmour Street, Ottawa, ONTARIO CANADA, K2P 0P1, Tel.: 1 888 604-7722 (PSAC)