CAUT brought together grievance officers from faculty associations across Canada for the association's first annual senior grievance officers workshop Nov. 7-9 in Ottawa.
In his opening remarks, CAUT president Victor Catano underscored the importance of the work undertaken by grievance officers as guardians of their associations' collective agreements. Subsequent sessions dealt with the grievance process and the relationship between grievance officers and their associations, confidentiality in the grievance process, member versus member disputes, and the settlement and arbitration processes.
The workshop concluded with a discussion of the practical problems that associations face in the recruitment, training and mentoring of new grievance officers and how these issues can be overcome.