Drafting Clear Contract Language: An in-depth skills training session

A clearly written collective agreement makes it easier for management, union representatives, and workers to understand their rights and obligations. Poorly written clauses can become the subject of disputes and costly arbitration. This hands-on training session is designed to provide bargaining committee members, labour lawyers, human resources professionals, and other labour relations professionals with the skills and knowledge necessary to:

• Interpret collective agreement language using rules of construction accepted by arbitrators.
• Recognize ambiguous provisions.
• Understand the concept of "estoppel".
• Develop a process for negotiating clear contract language.
• Make existing contract language clear to managers, supervisors, union stewards, and employees "on the shop floor."
• Identify common words, phrases, and stylistic problems that make contracts unclear.
• Modernize the structure and format of contracts.

MATERIALS
Includes materials, with case summaries and analyses, prepared by Lancaster's legal staff.