Region 4 Weekend Educational: May 23, 24 and 25, 2025

When

• Friday, May 23 – 1 pm to 5 pm (optional)
• Saturday, May 24 – 9 am to 4 pm
• Sunday, May 25 – 9 am to noon

Where

• Ottawa Conference and Event Centre, 200 Coventry Road, Ottawa, ON, K1K 4S3

Forms

• Application form
• Advance form
• Family care form
• Child care form
• Human rights accommodation form

Application deadline

• Applications must be received in the Brockville Regional Office no later than Friday, April 11, 2025. Please submit by email to [email protected]or by fax: (613) 498-3088

New!

• There is a ‘Meet & Greet’ with the equity groups on Friday, May 23 from 1-5pm (optional). Please indicate if you plan on attending this session or not in the attached application.

CoursesThe courses being offered over the (full-day) Saturday and (half-day) Sunday are:

• Stewards 2: Facing the Employer and Building Member Involvement
• Stewards 2: Facing the Employer and Building Member Involvement (French)
• Duty to Accommodate 1
• Health and Safety: Level 1
• Organizing to Win
• Public Speaking – Finding Your Voice and Connecting with your Audience

If you have any questions, please contact Nicole Windsor in the Brockville Regional Office. 1-844-765-1415 ext. 5403 or [email protected]In solidarity,The Region Four Education Committee

Course descriptions

 

Stewards 2: Facing the Employer and Building Member Involvement

Prerequisite: Stewards 1/New Stewards OrientationThis revised follow-up to Stewards 1 focuses on investigating and writing a grievance, facing management, and involving members in worksite action. Participants will use their own collective agreements to identify grievances. They will become immersed in an evolving case study in order to interview a grievor, write up a grievance, face the employer at a step 1 and make a presentation on safety issues to the union side of the Joint Health and Safety Committee. They will examine the elements of effective mobilization and develop a campaign strategy for a local. Participants should bring their collective agreements.

Duty to Accommodate 1: A Tool for Inclusive Workplaces

Provincial legislation and existing case law require employers and unions to provide accommodation short of undue hardship.This interactive course examines the roles and responsibilities of the employer, the union and the member in accommodating members with disabilities and all other protected groups under the Ontario Human Rights Code. It builds activists’ skills to support members requiring an accommodation, and to deal with employer resistance to accommodation in the workplace.

Health and Safety: Level 1

This course is designed for members and stewards who want to become more involved in health and safety activities in their workplace. There is a strong focus on health and safety legislation to enable participants to use the legislation effectively in their own workplaces.Participants work in groups to explore the legislation and to gain a better understanding of their rights and employers’ obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its regulations. Participants are introduced to the concepts of hazard identification, assessment and control and develop a greater understanding of the components of an effective health and safety system.

Organizing to Win

The Organizing to Win workshop explores principles, strategies and techniques of internal organizing as a process for empowering workers, strengthening the Local, and building a strong trade union movement.Participants will focus on discussing organizing strategies, mapping networks, identifying organic leaders and practicing the organizing conversations. Together we will build our power to create a movement that ensures all workers’ rights are respected.

Public Speaking – Finding your voice, connecting with your audience

Have you ever felt intimidated when you are a speaker in front of a large group? Have you ever wondered what you need to consider when planning and preparing a short presentation for the public? Whether you’d like to strengthen your presentation skills, look more confident and credible, define your core message, organize your thoughts, or find new and effective ways to collaborate with your team, this course will give you practical skills you need to communicate successfully. You will have an opportunity to practice and hone your presentation skills in a small group setting while concentrating on your message and target audience.

Important information

Local Presidents need to be aware that according to Board Policy, their own Local is responsible for each of its members who attend a course. When an applicant does not attend and the Regional Office has not been so advised 48 hours prior to the commencement of the Educational, the Local will be assessed a $50 penalty, to be deducted from the next Local rebate. Extenuating circumstances will be taken into consideration.Members are responsible for making their own reservations directly with the hotel by Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Please follow web-link provided in this email to make your hotel reservations once your application is submitted.All hotel bills must be paid upon checkout and you will be reimbursed on submission of your expense claim on the OPSEU member portal. Members who live within 60 km of the Hotel are entitled to accommodation for Saturday night only. Expenses for family and dependent care will be paid or provided in accordance with OPSEU’s Policy (please see the attached expense guidelines).The Policy regarding payment of wages at the Educational remains the same since it was changed at the Annual Convention held in April 1999. Please see the attached information regarding this matter.Please distribute the enclosed forms to interested members in your Local.Expense Guidelines Information Sheet

REGISTRATION

Application forms must be received by the Brockville Regional Office no later than Friday, April 11, 2025.

LOST WAGES:

In order to claim for lost wages, proof from your employer that you were scheduled to work and the amount of lost wages incurred must be provided. Own time is not paid.You are asked to make every effort to rearrange your schedule to avoid lost wage claims.Depending on demand, individual applicants may be limited to one lost wages claim for a weekend educational per calendar year.The Regional Education Committee will endeavor to distribute lost wages equitably among locals while taking into consideration equity criteria, the educational needs of locals and the region, and special circumstances that may apply.Time off arrangements are to be made by the member. No time off requests will be submitted automatically by OPSEU.

Hotel

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Courtyard by Marriott Ottawa East.Members are responsible for making their own accommodation and payment arrangements.Accommodations should be booked no later than Friday, April 23, 2025. Booking after this date is subject to availability and regular hotel room rates will apply.If members are unable to attend, they are responsible for cancelling their reservation.Members will be reimbursed for the shared cost of the OPSEU conference rate negotiated with the Hotel.

Expense forms

• Members will be reimbursed for the actual cost incurred for travel by public transportation. As per the policy of the union, the most economical means of transportation should be used.
• Where a member is required to use their private vehicle, they may claim for such travel at the current rate. The total distance travelled, and destination points are to be indicated on the expense form.
• Members must arrange their own travel and are encouraged to carpool.
• Current kilometer rates:
  • 1 OPSEU member travelling alone
  • $0.60/km; 2 OPSEU members $0.65/km, 3 OPSEU members
  • $0.70/km, 4 OPSEU members $0.75/km, 5 OPSEU members
  • $0.80/km.
• All expenses must be submitted via the member portal or on proper expense claim forms.

Child care / elder / dependent care

• Members will be reimbursed for childcare at $15.00 an hour for a maximum of 12 hours and $40.00 overnight, to a maximum of $220.00 per 24 hour period.
• Childcare claims will be honoured for children up to and including age 16, for whom the member is guardian.
• Friends, family, professional, commercial services or any other arrangement satisfactory may provide care to the member making the claim. Claims may be verified and must be signed by the service provider.
• Members seeking childcare through the Brockville Regional Office for the Educational must include the completed paperwork with their application.
• If childcare is requested they must be in attendance with the program. If the child is not in attendance you will be responsible for the full cost of the accommodation.
• Members who have responsibility for elderly/dependent persons wherever the service is provided, at home, in town or out of town.
• Members will be reimbursed for elder/dependent care at $15.00 an hour for a maximum of 12 hours, and $40 overnight, to a maximum of $220 a day.
• This policy covers the expenses for persons over the age of 16, permanently residing with, and under the care of a member, who are differently-abled and/or aged.

Meals

• Meal rates:
  • Breakfast $22
  • Lunch $30
  • Dinner $39

Cancellations

• Notification by members to cancel attendance should be received by both the Local President and the Regional Office no later than 48 hours before (no later than 4:30 PM on the Wednesday prior to the weekend school).
• When a member does not attend and has not cancelled as per the guidelines, the member will be assessed a $50 penalty (extenuating circumstances will be taken into consideration).

Advance

• Members may arrange to receive an advance cheque to cover accommodation, mileage and meal expenses by filling out the Advance Request Form.
• Completed forms can be submitted directly to [email protected]
• NOTE: Advances are not given for lost wages.

Wage Claims for Educationals

A resolution was passed at Convention 1999 to reinstate a member’s ability to claim for lost wages to attend Educationals.The thinking at the time was that is wasn’t fair for members who work weekends to have to take vacation days or comp days to attend an educational when members who don’t work weekends didn’t have a problem attending on their regularly scheduled time off. On the other hand, there were some who felt it wasn’t fair for those who work weekends to be paid to attend an educational and still get their time off during the week. Clearly there were two sides to the issue, but the delegates decided to pay time off for members who work shifts.At the next meeting of the officers, they decided that the intent of the motion will have been honoured if a region dedicates 10% of its education budget for lost wages. The officers left it up to each region to establish their own rules about how to pay lost wage claims. In Region Four we place a lot of importance on educating our members. We will do our best to compensate those who need time off while remaining within budget.The Education Committee has decided that it will dedicate $10,000 to pay lost wages this year. As two Regional Educationals are being planned, each will have $5,000 allotted to pay for lost wages. The money will be distributed among all wage claimers – pro-rated up to 100% of actual wages for each educational. For example, this means that if$6,000 in lost wages is claimed for the Spring Educational, each of the wage claimers will get 83.3% of their claim. Hopefully the local would see fit to top up the difference.This formula was used for previous Educationals and has worked reasonably well. However, the following issues need to be addressed:

1. The request for time off or, at the very least, an intention to claim for time off must be submitted at the time that the registration for the educational is submitted. One time a number of wage claims came in after an educational, when the members submitted their expense claims. The members explained they did not know when they submitted their registration forms whether or not they would be scheduled to work. If the work schedule isn’t made up yet and your members know they wish to attend the weekend educational being held, then they should ask their employer not to be scheduled for work that weekend. Furthermore, late wage claims make it impossible for the staff coordinating the educational to let others know in advance how much their claim is actually worth.
2. Proof of time off in the form of a letter from the employer must accompany the claim – lost wages will only be paid for prescheduled shifts on Saturday and Sunday (at straight time).Time off will not be paid for travel time on Friday and time off will not be paid for anything other than straight time. The letter from the employer must give full details of the basis for the claim.