Natasha Abraham is a speaker at Lancaster House's Bargaining In The Broader Public Sector Conference Workshop
In this interactive workshop, participants will learn legal principles and best practices in negotiating and drafting collective agreements that meet human rights obligations and promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (“EDI”).
Participants will hear from leading experts and work in small groups on skill-building exercises, learning how to apply an EDI lens to bargaining from start to finish. Attendees will learn how to:
- Prepare to address EDI effectively in bargaining by evaluating areas for improvement and identifying key issues to be addressed at the table;
- Review collective agreements for problematic language and update commonly-used but exclusionary terminology;
- Apply lessons learned from recent arbitration decisions in which collective agreement language was proved to be discriminatory;
- Craft new collective agreement clauses to remove barriers and promote EDI, incorporating emerging language addressing topics such as cultural and religious diversity, anti-racism, decolonization and Indigenization, disability and mental health, and gender equity and diversity; and
- Navigate potential conflicts between language aimed at promoting EDI and other collective agreement rights, such as seniority provisions.
All participants also receive a comprehensive set of digital materials, including textbook chapters, case summaries, and additional resources compiled by Lancaster House program lawyers for continued learning and reference.
Follow this link for more information!