Managing Unionised Employees Training Course

Participants can analyse collective-agreement language and form a defensible management position.

• Clause-reading sequence: plain meaning, context, purpose, and bargaining history
• Build an issue tree separating contract, policy, fact, and remedy questions
• Apply ejusdem generis and expressio unius only with legal advice
• Document past-practice evidence using timelines, witnesses, records, and comparator cases
• Distinguish mandatory subjects from permissible consultation under local labour rules
• Prepare management positions that preserve rights without overstating contractual authority

Participants can conduct constructive, controlled dealings with stewards and union representatives.

• Set manager-steward protocols for access, release time, and information requests
• Use pre-meeting agendas to distinguish consultation, notification, and negotiation
• Respond to information requests using relevance, confidentiality, and disclosure tests
• Separate positional demands from underlying interests during difficult discussions
• Interest-Based Bargaining techniques for generating options without conceding authority
• Record agreements, actions, owners, and deadlines in joint meeting minutes

Participants can manage grievances from initial receipt through response, settlement or escalation.

• Grievance intake checklist covering timeliness, article cited, facts, remedy, and signatures
• Map contractual grievance steps, deadlines, escalation points, and decision authorities
• Conduct triage using merits, risk, precedent, cost, and relationship criteria
• Prepare fact chronologies linking allegations, evidence, witnesses, and agreement clauses
• Write first-step responses that address issues without prejudicing later proceedings
• Settlement options assessed against precedent, operational feasibility, and implementation controls

Participants can plan and document fair investigations that withstand union scrutiny.

• Investigation plans defining allegations, scope, witnesses, records, and confidentiality controls
• Interview order and questioning methods that test reliability and corroboration
• Assess evidence using relevance, credibility, consistency, and balance-of-probabilities standards
• Maintain contemporaneous notes, document control, and need-to-know disclosure
• Procedural fairness safeguards before findings, discipline, or grievance-related decisions
• Investigation reports separating facts, analysis, findings, and recommended actions

Participants can make and document proportionate discipline decisions using just-cause principles.

• Just-cause analysis: notice, reasonableness, proof, consistency, and proportionality
• Progressive discipline ladders matched to misconduct severity and prior record
• Mitigating and aggravating factors documented before selecting corrective action
• Conduct pre-disciplinary meetings while protecting representation rights under applicable rules
• Draft allegation letters, outcome letters, and improvement expectations precisely
• Attendance and performance cases distinguished from culpable misconduct cases

Participants can address attendance and performance concerns while respecting accommodation duties.

• Attendance data segmented by frequency, duration, patterns, and protected absences
• Fitness-for-work discussions framed around functional limitations and essential duties
• Accommodation process records: request, medical information, options, and undue hardship
• Performance management plans aligned with job standards, coaching, and review dates
• Apply non-discrimination safeguards when addressing disability, family, or protected leave
• Coordinate occupational health, payroll, and line management without improper disclosure

Participants can assess labour-relations implications before implementing operational or organisational change.

• Classify proposed changes as contractual, managerial, technological, or statutory
• Assess consultation duties before restructuring, contracting out, or scheduling changes
• Impact assessments covering classifications, seniority, hours, pay, and workload
• Plan communications with consistent messages for employees, stewards, and supervisors
• Manage implementation risks through transition schedules, training, and dispute escalation
• Document consultation outcomes and unresolved issues for subsequent bargaining

Participants can support bargaining preparation and translate settlement terms into workplace actions.

• Prepare bargaining mandates from operational priorities, costs, risks, and constraints
• Cost wage proposals using base rates, premiums, benefits, and pension effects
• Package proposals, trade-offs, and conditional offers using issue prioritisation
• Apply Interest-Based Bargaining where parties agree shared problem-solving rules
• Maintain bargaining records, tentative agreements, and authority approval trails
• Plan ratification communications and implementation tasks after settlement

Participants can build a structured plan for addressing a current labour-relations priority.

• Diagnose a live labour-relations issue using contract, facts, stakeholders, and risk
• Select response options using legal, operational, financial, and relationship criteria
• Create a 90-day manager action plan with milestones and owners
• Escalate matters requiring human resources, legal counsel, or senior authority
• Establish monthly union-management meeting agendas and action registers
• Measure recurring disputes through grievance trends, absence data, and discipline outcomes