OCUFA GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE
MEETING OF JANUARY 24, 2014
Westin Harbour Castle Hotel
1 Harbour Square, Toronto
Minutes
PRESIDING:
Tess Hooks, Western, Chair
PRESENT:
Anthony Fabiano, Algoma
William Osei, Algoma
David Whitehead, Brock
Kimberly Benoit, Carleton
Mary DeCoste, Guelph
Laurie Forbes, Lakehead
Michelle Dion, McMaster
Sal Renshaw, Nipissing
Geoffrey Hudson, NOSM
Ramneek Pooni, Queen’s
Helen Luu, RMC
John Renken, St. Paul
Heather Diggle, Toronto
Jim Watson, Trent
Shirley Van Nuland, UOIT
Carrie Hunting, Waterloo
Jennifer Hewer, Windsor
Sheila Embleton, York
Andrea Harrington, York
Kristin Skinner, York
Micki Izzard, Guest
Gabriel Louli, Guest
Mark Rosenfeld, OCUFA Executive Director
Russell Janzen, OCUFA staff
REGRETS:
Laurentian, Ottawa, St. Jerome’s, Wilfrid Laurier, OCUFA President
1.
CALL TO ORDER
Tess Hooks (Western) called the meeting to order at 9:35 a.m.
2.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
York / Trent: That the agenda be adopted.
Carried
3.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
Queen’s / York: That the minutes be approved.
Carried
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4.
BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
a) Equity and gender training/resources sub-committee:
Tess reported that Sal Renshaw (Nipissing) and David Whitehead (Brock) are members;
Karen Wheeler (OCUFA staff support for the OCUFA Status of Women Committee) will
participate. They are meeting over lunch to discuss next steps, time permitting to present a
report to the committee at the April 4 meeting. Mary DeCoste (Vice-Chair) agreed to
participate.
b) Lancaster House audio conferences:
Russell Janzen (OCUFA staff) advised the committee that the Lancaster House audio
conferences selected at the previous meeting had been purchased and would now be
available in the Grievance Committee section of the Members Area of the OCUFA web-site.
c) Workplace investigators ratings:
Ramneek Pooni (Queen’s) reported that she and André Foucault (Ryerson) had discussed
how to proceed and were of the opinion that there was too little data to proceed with a project
of this nature at the moment. They suggest revisiting the idea in the fall.
d) Processes and criteria for selecting independent medical examiners:
Only two associations with experience in this area had responded to the question distributed
by email. A copy of the summary was included in the meeting materials.
e) Peer mediation processes:
Due to weather delays, the matter was deferred until Sal Renshaw (Nipissing) was able to
join the committee. When the item was taken up after item 6, Sal outlined the concept of peer
mediation she had in mind for the committee to discuss. It would entail using association
members with appropriate training and certification as mediators for disputes involving
association members at another Ontario institution. The OCUFA Grievance Committee could
facilitate the identification of a roster of mediators, and some resource commitment might be
required to provide training. Mediators would be required to commit to several years.
In the discussion, statements in favour of the idea cited cost savings to employers and faculty
associations in light of the increased number of cases of workplace harassment being dealt
with, employer-initiated processes are not serving association members well, and the
preference for mediated settlements over legalistic and adversarial proceedings. Converse
opinions expressed skepticism about the likelihood of employers’ acceptance of OCUFArecommended peer mediators, association members’ own confidence in the process, and a
large number of established third party mediators.
Tess proposed that the committee could revisit the matter at a future date if a formal proposal
and assessment of resource requirements from OCUFA and the Grievance Committee were
made. Sal advised the committee she was willing to receive any further information and
suggestions they would be willing to offer.
5.
REPORT OF OCUFA EXECUTIVE AND BOARD
Mark Rosenfeld (OCUFA Executive Director) presented the report, a copy of which was provided
in meeting materials. He discussed the upcoming provincial budget and the possibility of a
general election in the spring. He outlined a number of initiatives undertaken by the provincial
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government, including the differentiation policy framework, a proposed online centre of
excellence, capital funding for satellite campuses, and the extension of the tuition grant. He gave
an update on OCUFA’s activities with respect to Strategic Mandate Agreements, program
prioritization, pensions, the OCUFA education and mobilization and We Teach Ontario
campaigns, and the upcoming Future U conference.
Discussion centred on the proposed online centre of excellence and its implications for faculty
workload and intellectual property.
6.
CASE MANAGEMENT AND GRIEVANCE DATABASES
Micki Izzard of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association and Gabriel Louli and Peter
Douglas of LabourWare gave presentations on the purpose and design of grievance databases.
Micki opened the session with a brief explanation of what databases are and the different parts
and functions of databases. She identified several essential features, including ease of use,
search functions, filtering options, email notification, file upload capacity, and list or spreadsheet
report formats.
For associations considering the purchase or development of a grievance database, she
recommended they consider: a) whether it should be located on a desktop computer or online; b)
the cost is one-time or monthly, per user or per member; c) administrator and user options (who
has access and of what type); d) the scope of changes that can be made on contract renewal.
She recommended they ask prospective contractors about: a) future costs; b) upgrades; c) the
range and type of devices for access; d) file backup systems; e) types and levels of security.
Gabriel and Peter discussed the advantages of having a grievance database and outlined some
of the features of their own product. Among the advantages they identified were the ability to
manage multiple and simple or complex timelines, standardized case language for consistent
results, and better research and reporting using references and cross-references to language and
clauses in agreements, etc. They also observed that it helps preserve institutional memory in
organizations with elected leadership positions. They also discussed the features of their own
product, including the level of detail it can accommodate with respect to clauses in agreements,
variety of complaint or case types, management of supporting documents, and others.
Copies of the presentations are to be made available in the Grievance Committee’s section of the
Members Area of the OCUFA web-site.
7.
MEMBERS’ DISCUSSION
a) Member Reports
Each member of the committee was invited to report on grievance issues on behalf of her or his
association. The members raised the following issues: hiring practices; harassment; denial of
research leave; academic misconduct; discipline; timeliness of employer responses; program
prioritization; access to information requests; custody and control of documents; bargaining unit
work; contract academic staff appointments; tenure denial; teaching stream appointments;
workload; LTD and return to work; conflict of interest; religious accommodation; early retirement;
unfair labour practice; medical information consent forms; sick leave; email access; wrongful
dismissal; confidentiality; promotion and tenure; expense reimbursement.
b) Trends and issues
No trends or specific issues were identified for further discussion.
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8.
REPORT OF GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE CHAIR
a) Discussion of future sessions:
Members were reminded that Jesmen Mendoza (Ryerson) will be conducting a session on
dealing with distressed members, and were asked to send suggestions for scenarios to Russell to
forward to Jesmen.
b) Notice of elections:
Tess reminded members that a notice of election was included in the meeting materials, and
advised them that one nomination for committee Chair had been received.
c) Other matters
Tess advised the committee that the proposed workshop on “After Bill 168: Occupational Health
and Safety in the Academy” is postponed. She suggested the Grievance Officer Orientation
Workshop might be held every second year and “After Bill 168” might be scheduled for 2015
instead of an orientation workshop. She proposed the committee discuss the matter at the next
meeting.
Tess also advised the committee that, in light of the postponement of “After Bill 168,” a labour
studies student from McMaster University who is doing a placement at OCUFA is seeking two
committee volunteers to be interviewed for approximately 45 minutes about “their experiences,
familiarity, issues with violence in the workplace….” Russell will send an email reminder to recruit
interview subjects.
The next meeting is April 4, 2014.
9.
OTHER BUSINESS
Tess reminded members they can send any ideas for committee projects or meeting sessions to
Russell any time between meetings as well.
The meeting adjourned at 4:10 p.m.
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