A grievance can be filed for any alleged violation of the legal terms and conditions of employment. This includes not only what is covered in your collective agreement, but also everything covered by provincial and federal legislation. For example, your collective agreement may be silent on health and safety, human rights, defamation and libel, but this could be because preexisting legislation already protects you.
Grievances can be won on a number of issues: a violation of your collective agreement, violation of the law, case law precedents and past practice.
The collective agreement defines three kinds of grievances: individual, group, and policy. For more information, tenured and tenure-track faculty can see Article 11 – Grievance Procedure and Arbitration of the collective agreement. Teaching faculty should refer to Article 11 – Grievance Process and Arbitration Procedure of their agreement.
What should you do if you think you have a grievance? Your first step should always be to consult your Faculty Association – we’re here to help you.