HGSU-UAW Workplace Issue Form
Workplace Issues FAQ
A grievance is a formal complaint made by a student worker and their Union about a violation of the contract. This is a multi-step process, which can start with attempts at informal resolution, and may be followed by meetings with the head of department and the dean. If none of these steps produce a satisfactory resolution for the student worker, the Union can initiate a binding arbitration procedure with the University. You can read the full grievance article (Article 6) in our contract here.
Submitting this workplace issues form is the easiest way to let your Union know about any issues you’re having at work! When you submit this form, your grievance committee chairs will reach out to you within 3 business days in order to connect you with a trained Union grievance officer. This grievance officer will be your main point of contact. They will contact you to get more details on your situation, provide any support they can, and help you initiate the grievance procedure if you are facing a contract violation. They can also accompany you to any meetings with the University to provide support and advocate on your behalf.
Definitely! We encourage everyone to let us know about workplace issues through this form, whether or not you think you are facing a contract violation. Our grievance officers can go through any relevant contract articles with you to figure out if they have been violated. Even if the contract has not been breached, we are available to provide support, and help student workers get an informal resolution that works for them! It is also really important for us to know about issues student workers are facing that are not covered by the contract, so that we can make those a priority for future contracts.
Yes, you can submit this form on behalf of somebody else, or on behalf of a group affected by a widespread issue. If you are submitting on behalf of another individual, please get their consent before submitting their identifying information or contact details. If you want to make us aware of an issue without being identified or without identifying another person, you can submit the form anonymously. Please be aware that if you don’t provide a name or contact details, we will not be able to reach out to you or initiate a formal grievance on your behalf. This information will still help us identify issues and advocate for students more generally, however
The privacy and safety of our student workers is our top priority. When you submit your information to this form, it is stored in our grievance submissions Airtable database. Access to this database is restricted to the three elected grievance committee co-chairs and our local staff members. We will respond to your initial submission, and find an available grievance committee member to support you. Once we have found someone to take on your case, we will first confirm with you that you are happy to work with them. After we have gotten your permission, we will then share your submission with that committee member. At every point in the process, we will not share details or identifying information about your case with anyone without first obtaining your permission.
There are timelines for filing a formal grievance, so don’t delay in bringing your work issue to our attention. You have 30 days from the day you knew of the issue to file a grievance, however, even if you believe you are close to, or may have missed your deadline, fill out this form and one of the co-chairs will get back to you immediately. If your situation is urgent, such as if you have an upcoming meeting with the administration or are close to the 30-day deadline, please let us know using the form and we will fast-track assigning you a grievance handler.
You are never under any obligation to advance an issue further, and the grievance committee will not escalate a complaint on your behalf without your explicit approval. Our goal is to obtain whatever level of resolution is satisfactory to you.
