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Grievance Information: Know Your Rights

Grievance Procedure

One of the Union’s primary functions is enforcing what we won in the contract, which means representing ASEs at all steps of the Grievance Procedure, including informal discussions. The contract provides a 21-day timeline for the Union to file a Step 1 grievance. According to our contract, Step 1 grievances “must be filed within twenty one (21) calendar days from the occurrence of the events giving rise to the grievance, or from the time at which the aggrieved individual should reasonably have become aware of the grievance.” Informal discussions do not extend the 21-day timeline. Therefore, it is critical that you contact the Union as soon as you become aware of a possible grievance so that you can receive assistance even before initiating an informal discussion with your supervisor or department.

 

Recent Grievance Success

Appointment Letters & Appointment Length

The Union has successfully ensured that ASEs in many departments now receive year-long (9 month) appointments. Prior to the contract, many departments only provided quarter-long appointments to ASEs, despite having sufficient funding to provide year-long appointments to all or most of their ASEs.

Health and Safety

• In a department in which some ASEs were required to work with mercury, they did not receive contractually guaranteed health and safety training. As a result, ASEs were not fully prepared to handle a mercury spill and subsequently were exposed to mercury. With help from the Union, the ASEs were able to ensure that they and future ASEs in the department receive proper training.

Health Insurance

• Although we've negotiated improvements to our health insurance benefits in the last two contract cycles, we've sometimes had to fight to ensure that these improvements are actually being implemented. The Union has helped ASEs who've had problems getting coverage for lab fees, preventive services such as STD or cholesterol screenings, and mail-order prescription medications. For more information about your benefits, as well as links to the GAIP plan booklet, click here.

Job Postings

• The Union has ensured in numerous instances that open-hire job postings across campus are properly posted on the University’s Website so that all ASEs could access information about these appointments.

Layoff & Job Security

• The Union has helped protect numerous ASEs from having jobs they had accepted withdrawn by their department due to low course enrollment, changes in grant funding, or other reasons. Under our contract, ASEs are entitled to an equivalent appointment and compensation if an original appointment offer is changed or eliminated.

Non-Discrimination and Harassment

• A pregnant Research Assistant wanted to postpone her third RA lab rotation assignment until after the time she was expecting to give birth. In response, a department supervisor told her she should reconsider whether or not she really wanted to be in graduate school. With help from the Union, she successfully preserved and postponed her third quarter of RA lab rotation employment.

Vacation

• Prior to our contract, ASEs had to depend on their department's or supervisor's willingness to be able to take vacation time. The Union contract language has empowered numerous ASEs across campus to take vacation for the first time in order to visit family overseas or for other reasons. Previously supervisors had often expected them to keep working in their labs even during the academic quarter breaks.

Wages

• Many Graduate Student Service Appointees have been classified at a lower pay step than they were eligible for under the contract. With Union assistance, they have been reclassified into the higher step and awarded back pay for the period when they were misclassified.
• A large group of Tutors received more than a year’s worth of back pay after the Union won an arbitration decision affirming that under our contract the University had to apply annual percentage increases to established hourly ASE pay rates as well as graduate ASE rates. Previous to the arbitration decision, the University had refused to do so.
• The Union has helped hundreds of ASEs receive back pay in situations where the University failed to process their contractually guaranteed wage increases.

Worker’s Compensation Coverage (Trainee C Job Class)

• The Union won an arbitration decision affirming that the University is required by our contract to treat ASEs in the Trainee C job title as covered employees for the purpose of Workers Compensation insurance. An ASE in our bargaining unit had developed a chronic back condition as a result of extensive bench work as a Trainee C in her laboratory. She sought treatment and filed a Workers Compensation claim with the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) so that her medical bills would be paid by L&I according to state law, rather than having to use her own ASE insurance and suffer out-of-pocket costs. In response to the claim, the University communicated to L&I that as a Trainee C she was not covered for the purpose of Workers Compensation. With help from the Union, she was able to win her claim despite the University misreporting her status to the state. Additionally, the Union pursued a grievance to ensure that all Trainee Cs would be considered covered employees in the future, which ultimately resulted in the favorable arbitration decision.

Workload

• Numerous hourly and salaried ASEs across campus have received assignments that would result in working more hours than were specified in their original appointment letters. With help from the Union, these ASEs have been able to either get relief before exceeding their workload or receive additional pay for the excess hours.
• In several departments, required job training for ASEs was going unpaid and these departments were claiming that such training was “coursework” instead of workload as defined under our contract. The Union successfully got those hours counted toward workload, resulting in additional ASE pay or reduction of ASE workload.
• The Union has assisted course Graders in multiple departments to obtain accurate workload/hours expectations at the outset of their assignments and to be paid on an hourly basis. Originally these ASEs had been paid a quarterly lump sum regardless of the number of hours the assignment took. As a result, these ASEs now have an enforceable workload protection under the contract while also receiving on average 20% more in overall compensation compared to the previous lump sums.

Workspace and Materials

A group of Research Assistants whose assigned duties require both experimental work at the lab bench as well as analytic work at a desk were informed by their hiring unit that, due to space limitations, they would no longer have individual desk space. Instead they would have access to desks on a drop-in, space-available basis, which would significantly undermine the RAs' ability to perform their assigned work in a timely manner. Working with the Union, these ASEs fought for and preserved individual desk spaces at their worksite.

 

Contract-Related Information and Links