NEW SCHOOL SENS GRIEVANCES

Before we won a union, if you were mistreated at your campus job, the only form of recourse you had was to appeal to the NS administration. If you didn’t like the administration’s decision, there was little you could do.

Now that we’ve won a union, not only do you have additional rights and benefits, you also have a more powerful mechanism to ensure that the university and/or your boss 1) does not mistreat you and 2) respects your rights and benefits. This mechanism is called the grievance procedure. Here’s how it works:

1. You have an issue at your job. The issue could be as minor as you being paid a couple of days late or as major as you being harassed by your supervising professor. You believe the university or your boss is violating our union contract. 
2. You reach out to your union rep or email us (sensuaw@gmail.com) to report the problem. If the problem you’re facing at work has to do with harassment, then you have up to 365 days to reach out to us. Otherwise, YOU MUST reach out within 20 days of the problem’s occurrence. The sooner you report the problem to us, the better.
3. A union rep or steward will be in touch with you to discuss the problem. Sometimes, small problems can be resolved informally. You and the rep will help determine whether the problem can be resolved informally or not.
4. If the problem cannot be resolved informally, the rep. will set up an official grievance meeting with university officials. Depending on your problem and whether there are others experiencing it, we may need to have several meetings with the university or only one.
5. The university will propose a resolution to your problem. You and your union rep will discuss the resolution. If you and your rep do not find the university’s decision satisfactory, you have the right to appeal your case to a neutral, third-party arbitrator. 
6. An arbitrator is a neutral professional who resolves disputes between union workers and their employer. We will make our case before the arbitrator and the university will make its case. The arbitrator will make a binding decision, meaning the university must follow the arbitrator’s decision even if it doesn’t like it.

​Don’t let the grievance procedure daunt you. We’ll be with you every step of the way. If necessary, we will pay for a lawyer to help during the process. We are here to support you and help you hold the university accountable.