Article 27 – Grievances

27.1.1 Complaints

The parties confirm their mutual desire that every grievance shall be dealt with promptly with the object of arriving at a fair and proper settlement.

27.1.2

It is the right of each employee to seek to resolve disputes that arise concerning terms and conditions of employment through informal discussions with academic and administrative colleagues, provided that such informal discussions shall not in any way prejudice any dispute resolution procedures set out in this Agreement.

A "grievance" shall be defined as any dispute that arises between the Employer and the Association respecting the interpretation, application, or alleged violation of any of the provisions of the Agreement. The Association is entitled to initiate a grievance in its own right or on behalf of an employee. A statement of grievance must be filed with the Joint Grievance Committee within 90 days of the discovery of the alleged grievance.

A grievance proceeding is initiated by a statement in writing by either party to the Joint Grievance Committee which sets out the substance of the grievance and indicates the provisions of the Agreement that are alleged to have been improperly interpreted, or wrongly applied, or violated.

27.2.1

The statement of the grievance and reference to specific provisions of the Agreement are not to be held to limit the scope of the grounds for the grievance which will always be the Agreement in its entirety.

27.2.2

When a grievance is initiated on behalf of an employee, that employee shall have the right to be heard by the Joint Grievance Committee.

27.2.3

The Association is entitled to access to all documents relevant to a grievance, including confidential documents as provided for by Article 12.

27.2.4

All grievances initiated by the Association in its own right shall be forwarded to the Joint Grievance Committee for resolution by the Committee, or disposition in accordance with the procedures prescribed in Article 27.4.

27.2.5

All grievances initiated by the Employer concerning the interpretation, application or alleged violation of any of the provisions of the Agreement by an employee, or the Association, or both shall be forwarded to the Joint Grievance Committee for resolution by that Committee, or disposition in accordance with the procedures prescribed in Article 27.4.

The parties agree that there shall be a Joint Employer-Association Grievance Committee whose short name will be the Joint Grievance Committee which shall have as its composition six (6) persons, consisting of three (3) persons representing the Employer, and three (3) persons representing the Association.

27.3.1

The Employer and the Association may add to the membership of the Joint Grievance Committee by mutual agreement, and either the Employer or the Association may, without agreement, have other persons, including the aggrieved employee, if any, attend a meeting of the Joint Grievance Committee for the purpose of providing information.

27.3.2

A quorum shall consist of a minimum of four (4) members of whom two (2) shall be representatives of the Employer and two (2) shall be representatives of the Association.

27.3.3

The Joint Grievance Committee shall have the right in conducting its business to make decisions on matters of substance and procedure, except as restricted by Article 27.7, and to this end shall forthwith adopt its own rules of procedure.

Should a grievance not be resolved to the satisfaction of the Employer or the Association within thirty days of its receipt by the Joint Grievance Committee, either party may within the next fifteen days, give written Notice of Intention to Proceed to Arbitration. Failing such notice the grievance in question shall be considered to have lapsed. The time periods specified in this Article may be subject to extension by mutual agreement of the two parties.

27.4.1

In the event that either of the parties to this Agreement decide that a grievance should be sent forward to the arbitration stage, the Employer and the Association shall attempt to agree on an arbitrator within fourteen (14) calendar days from the date of the receipt of the Notice of Intention to Proceed to Arbitration by the Joint Grievance Committee.

27.4.2

Should the Employer and the Association fail to agree on the appointment of an arbitrator, the arbitrator shall be the first name on the Panel of Arbitrators, as stipulated in Appendix A of this Agreement. Any member of the panel, who having been requested in turn to act as arbitrator and who is unwilling or unable to act, shall not again be requested to act until that member's name comes up again in the regular rotation of the panel.

27.4.3

Should no member of the Panel of Arbitrators agree to hold an arbitration hearing within a period of sixty (60) days from the date the request is made, the Minister of Labour of the Province of Saskatchewan will be asked to appoint an arbitrator, who within the two years preceding the request, will not have been employed by the University of Saskatchewan or the University of Regina, and will not have represented the Employer or the Association as an agent, nor have been involved in any prior attempt to negotiate or settle the grievance to be arbitrated.

27.4.4

Any matter or question arising from the interpretation, application, or alleged violation of this Agreement, including questions of the proper application of all procedures set out in this Agreement, and including also the question of whether a matter is arbitrable, may be submitted to arbitration by the parties as herein provided.

27.4.5

The parties are instructed in respect of grievances submitted in accordance with the provisions of Articles 27.2.4 and 27.2.5 to attempt a joint written statement which stipulates the matter to be arbitrated, and if such a joint statement is presented to the arbitrator, the arbitrator shall be bound to adjudicate the issue or issues as stipulated and no other.

27.4.6

Should no such joint stipulation be presented to the arbitrator, the arbitrator will determine the issue or issues before the arbitrator on the basis of the presentations made during the course of the hearing.

27.4.7

The arbitrator shall not have jurisdiction to amend or add to any of the provisions of this Agreement or to substitute any new provisions in lieu thereof, nor to give any decision inconsistent with the terms of this Agreement, provided, however, that the arbitrator will not be barred from hearing and rendering an award on the basis of technical irregularity, if such irregularity has no bearing on the substance of the grievance.

Each of the parties shall equally share the fee and expenses of the arbitrator. Each of the parties shall be responsible for all costs and expenses of its own counsel and witnesses, except those witnesses who are persons in the employ of the University shall continue to receive their regular compensation while acting as witnesses and no charges shall be assessed for the working time lost while they are acting as witnesses.

The arbitrator shall exercise those powers enumerated in The Saskatchewan Employment Act, as amended from time to time and the arbitrator's decision shall be final and binding on both parties.

27.6.1

The arbitrator shall have the power to examine any document held under the authority of the Employer or the Association, that the arbitrator believes might be relevant to the grievance at arbitration, and release to the parties such documents, wholly or in part, that the arbitrator judges to be relevant.

27.6.2

In any instance in which there has arisen the issue of access to documents as indicated in Article 27.2.3 and the arbitrator has released a document under Article 27.6.1 the arbitrator shall be empowered to order an adjournment until such time that the arbitrator considers the Association or the Employer to have had sufficient opportunity to incorporate the newly available documents into the presentation of the case.

Limitations on Access to Grievance Procedure and Arbitration. Certain review procedures involving complex forms of academic peer judgment have evolved out of continuous practical experience. These complex academic review procedures include: renewal of probationary appointments (Article 14), tenure (Article 15), promotion (Article 16), salary review (Article 17), sabbatical leave (Article 20.2.1, 20.3, and 20.4), educational leave (Article 21.6), and declaration of partial redundancy (Article 29.2 (ii) and 29.5.2 (i)). Special appeal procedures exist as remedy for employee grievances concerning these matters, and resort to this Article shall be permitted only insofar as it is provided for in those Articles.