Organizing 101 Workshop Series: Procedural Fairness – Your Rights During a Complaint Process

Too many workers already experience wage theft, unjust termination, and other violations of the Employment Standards Act. Typically, information about your rights at work, such as minimum wage requirements and overtime, are accessible online such as on the Employment Standards website, or the WSN Know-Your-Rights page.

However, what happens once you decide to assert your rights and participate in an Employment Standards Branch Complaint? Information about your rights during this process is often not as clear, and much harder to come by, especially for complainants with little to no prior experience with these matters

This presentation intends to empower self-represented complainants or prospective complainants, and any workers really, to advocate for themselves effectively and improve the outcome of their complaints. No prior experience or familiarity is needed in order to attend and benefit from this presentation.

Topics covered will include:

• What is the role of everyone involved in the complaint process?
• What are the obligations of the Employment Standards Branch (ESB) during your complaint process?
• What are the limits of the discretion of ESB officers during the investigation process?
• What are some possible causes for an appeal of an ESB decision?
• Common terms related to your procedural rights, and more.

This workshop will continue your introduction to your rights as a worker in BC and the steps you can take to protect them, as we build towards organizing your workplace. A zoom link will be sent after registration, and all registrants will be notified of the next workshop in our series upon completion of the first one.

THE WORKER SOLIDARITY NETWORK AND THE LABOURERS’ INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA PRESENT:

ORGANIZING 101 WORKSHOP SERIES

Are you tired of having your labour taken for granted? Are you interested in unions but don’t know where to begin? Do you want to come together with your coworkers to challenge power and stand up for yourselves? Or do you just want to know how to protect yourself from missing wages, discrimination, and bad bosses?

At this stage in the COVID-19 Pandemic, workers understand better than ever that they deserve better protections and fair treatment. Workers deserve to know how to stand up for their rights. Workers deserve unions.

Join us for our Organizing 101 workshop series to learn how to organize for the rights you deserve.

For the first time ever, the Worker Solidarity Network and the Labourers’ International Union of North America are teaming up to offer a comprehensive and FREE online workshop series covering everything you need to know to stand up for your rights, fight back against employer abuse, and form a union.

Workshops will cover: Understanding the Employment Standards Act, Procedural Fairness 101, Retaliation, the Labour Code, Organizing 101, talking to your coworkers about unions, and more!

Workshops will run once a month online for an hour from June to August, and then bi-monthly online September to November. We will end with a session introducing you to all the major unions in BC to find the union right for you!

Curriculum:

1) Understanding the Employment Standards Branch: June 6th

2) Procedural Fairness – Your Rights During a Complaint Process: July 4th

3) What is Retaliation: August 1st

4) Labour Code Part 1: September TBA

5) Labour Code Part 2: September TBA

6) Organizing Part 1: October TBA

7) Organizing Part 2: October TBA

8: Organizing Part 3: November TBA

9) Unions in BC Showcase: November TBA

Sign up to be a member of the Worker Solidarity Network at workersolidarity.ca to stay in touch and find out more!