A Region 4 Educational will held on June 13 and 14, 2026, at the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre – 200 Coventry Road, Ottawa, ON.
The courses being offered are:
- Stewards 2: Facing the Employer and Building Member Involvement
- Stewards 3: Dealing with Discipline
- Advancing Union Issues Through Labour Management
- Duty to Accommodate 2
- Advanced Grievance Handling for Union Building (French)
Completed application forms must be received no later than end of day, Thursday, April 30, 2026
Unfortunately, late applications will not be considered.
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 and the member may not be eligible to attend the next educational. Extenuating circumstances will be taken into consideration.
Members are responsible for making their own reservations directly with the hotel by Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Please make your hotel reservations as soon as you submit your application to us.
All hotel bills must be paid upon checkout, and you will be reimbursed on submission of your expense claim on the OPSEU/SEFPO 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/SEFPO’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. If you will require time off to attend this educational, you must acknowledge this on your application.
Please distribute the enclosed forms to interested members in your Local. If you have any questions, please contact:
Shari Laird in the Kingston Regional Office at: 1-844-765-1414 or [email protected]
In solidarity,
The Region Four Education Committee
Course Descriptions
Stewards 2: Facing the Employer, Building Member Involvement
Prerequisite: Stewards1/ New Stewards Orientation
This 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 where they 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.
Stewards 3: Dealing with Discipline
This is an advanced level steward course. It is suggested that participants take Stewards 1 and Stewards 2 prior to signing up for this program. Dealing with Discipline is a skills and knowledge focused workshop that will assist union activists in their duties representing members that are facing discipline up to and including dismissal.
The course bridges concepts from Stewards 1 and 2, Basic and Advanced Grievance Handling and Workplace Investigations. Participants should bring their Collective Agreements to the course.
Advancing Union Issues through Labour Management Committees
Often union-side members become cynical about labour management committee work because the employer refuses to meet or follow through on action. This course aims to strengthen the skills of labour management committees to solve workplace problems and build the union, whether management is cooperating or not. A variety of activities are used to clarify the union-building potential of labour management committees (LMC), to assess the effectiveness of a LMC, and to strengthen skills to move a workplace complaint to resolution at the LMC. Attention is paid to a) arguing an issue; b) addressing management tactics; c) using the LMC to communicate with members; d) strategies to mobilize members to back LMC work; e) connecting LMC work to bargaining and mobilizing work in the Local. Participants should bring their Collective Agreements to the course.
Duty to Accommodate 2: Making Accommodation Work
Does your employer balk at providing proper accommodations? Has your employer challenged the medical information the member has provided? Is the employer asking members for independent medical exams? Do you hear grumblings from co-workers about the number of accommodations in the workplace?
Building on the skills and information in the first course, “Duty to Accommodate: A tool for inclusive workplaces”, Making Accommodation Work: Duty to Accommodate 2 examines the challenges of supporting a worker in need of an accommodation. This course investigates strategies and skills for gathering information, challenging employer tactics used to prevent accommodations, developing a fair accommodation plan, and communicating with co-workers to build more workplace solidarity.
While the course focuses mainly on the practical aspects of accommodation due to disability, many of the issues such as Collective Agreement language, attendance management programs, and co-worker resentment apply to accommodation based on sex and family status as well.
Note: Due to the volume of information about Duty to Accommodate, it is strongly advised that participants take “Duty to Accommodate: A Tool for Inclusive Workplaces” before Duty to Accommodate 2.
Advanced Grievance Handling for Union Building (French)
Does your local have a grievance committee? Can your experience in handling a grievance help to build the local? Can you use your knowledge of common grievance issues to raise awareness at demand setting meetings? Have you ever thought of what it is like to be on the Employer side of the table? These are some of the topics that will be explored in the Advanced Grievance Handling for Union Building course.
You will also get the opportunity to practice being on the Union’s team and the Employer’s Team as you work through some scenarios. Building on the Basic Grievance Handling for Union Building course, this course focuses on expanding both the steward’s and Local’s ability to process grievances from start to finish.
Through active interviewing process, participants will explore how to identify grievances, practice negotiating settlements, and draft realistic, enforceable grievance settlements. Participants should bring their Collective Agreements to the course.
Expense guidelines
Registration
Application forms must be received by the Kingston Regional Office no later than Thursday, April 30, 2026
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.
Time off arrangements are to be made by the member including requesting time off through the event application. No time off requests will be submitted automatically by OPSEU/SEFPO.
Accommodation
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Courtyard by Marriott and the Hampton by Hilton Ottawa.
- Members who live within 60 km of the event are eligible for accommodation on Saturday night only
- Members are responsible for making their own accommodation and payment arrangements.
- Accommodations should be booked no later than May 12, 2026. Booking after this date is subject to availability and regular hotel room rates may apply.
- If members are unable to attend, they are responsible for cancelling their reservation.
- Members will be reimbursed at the single accommodation rate of the OPSEU/SEFPO conference rate negotiated with the Hotel.
Expense forms
- The member portal is the quickest way to have your expenses processed. Please see the online expense claim tutorial on the OPSEU/SEFPO website.
- Members will be reimbursed for the actual cost incurred for travel. 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 for OPSEU/SEFPO members: 1 member travelling alone $0.60/km; 2 members
$0.65/km, 3 members $0.70/km, 4 members $0.75/km, 5 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 requiring child care on site must include the Child Care Registration Form with their application.
- 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 if child care on site is not used.
- 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 satisfactory arrangement may provide care to the member making the claim. Family Attendant Claim Forms may be verified and must be signed by the service provider.
- Members who have responsibility for elderly/dependent persons (over the age of 16) wherever the service is provided, at home, in town or out of town 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.
Meals
- All meals not provide at the event will be eligible for reimbursement in accordance with standard OPSEU/SEFPO policies. Morning and afternoon snack breaks will be provided during course instruction.
- Meal rates: Breakfast $21, Lunch $29, Dinner $38
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 end of last business day before scheduled event.
- When a member does not attend and has not cancelled as per the guidelines, the member will be assessed a $50 penalty, deducted from the local rebate (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.
- Advance requests will also be available on the member portal.
Wage Claim Policy
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:
- 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. - 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.