Grievance arbitration in education

The Greffe des tribunaux d’arbitrage du secteur de l’éducation (arbitration tribunals office for the education sector) is responsible for arbitrating grievances lodged by employees and their unions against employers in the English school board system, the Cree and Kativik Ilisarniriliniq school boards, the French school service centres and the CEGEPS. It also manages the recourse and appeal committees for complaints lodged by management staff.

The Greffe also manages the arbitration tribunals for certain public and parapublic pension plans administered by Retraite Québec. 

SIGTA is a mechanism, available in French only, for managing grievances submitted for arbitration and is accessible only to local and provincial parties to the grievances. It is used mainly for:

• opening and closing grievances
• submitting an amendment
• consulting grievance files
• accessing certain statistical reports

Access to SIGTA (in French only)

Decisia enables everyone to access:

• chronicles of the decisions rendered during the previous week
• statistics on arbitration rulings
• archives – collective agreements

A yearly subscription to Decisia gives access to all rulings concerning the education sector as well as decisions on other matters (management staff and Retraite Québec’s pension plans) submitted to the Greffe. To obtain a subscription form, send an email to the Greffe.

Access Decisia

The Greffe is, in fact, an employer-union mechanism. Unlike other tribunals, the Greffe interprets the texts of collective agreements, not laws. It must demonstrate impartiality and, above all, be at the service of both parties, that is, the unions and the employers.

Mandates

The mandates of the Greffe des tribunaux d’arbitrage du secteur de l’éducation (arbitration tribunals office for the education sector) are associated with the arbitration of grievances lodged by unionized staff.

Managing grievances

The Greffe manages grievance cases that are submitted for arbitration. In fact, all unions must submit their grievances to the Greffe if they want an arbitrator to hear their claims and render a decision. Employers also have the right to use the arbitration process.

Assignment of grievance cases

Once the request for arbitration is submitted, the party who submitted the request must ask for an arbitrator to be named to hear both parties. The Greffe is responsible for assigning an arbitrator.

The main events of each grievance are monitored, entered, and verified in the Greffe’s SIGTA system, in collaboration with the arbitrators assigned to these cases, until such time as the grievance is closed.

Publication of rulings

Once the arbitrator has rendered a decision, the Greffe is responsible for sending it to the parties directly involved in the case as well as to the secretariat of the Ministère du Travail, and for publishing it through our online bank of decisions (Decisia).