Sample Letter to Employees Appointing The Workplace Ombudsman

Dear Employee,

Our company has just engaged Lawrie Cherniack, The Workplace Ombudsman, to act as the Ombudsman for employees at our workplace. Just as the Ombudsman for the Province of Manitoba (and every other Canadian province) can review decisions made by government, so Mr. Cherniack is available to review decisions made by us that may affect you.

This service is free to you and to every employee at every level of the company.  It is independent and neutral and, except in extremely rare cases where immediate harm might occur, completely confidential.

Mr. Cherniack is available to help you in the following circumstances:

• If you feel that you have not been fairly treated after you have tried to deal with your problems using our Personnel Policy Procedures. In that connection, he should be treated only as a last resort, after you have tried everything else that is available to you.
• If you don’t know where to go with your workplace problem.
• If you want to talk over a workplace problem on a completely confidential basis. Even the fact that you’ve contacted him will be completely confidential. No one but you and he will know.
• If you think that an informal discussion with him and another worker may resolve issues before they get heated.

Mr. Cherniack is completely independent and neutral. Our contract with him makes certain that:

• He cannot be influenced by the Company in any way.
• All information provided to him on a confidential basis will remain confidential and there is no legal way by which he can be forced to provide that information.
• He has the right to have access to personnel files on a completely confidential basis in order to review any matters that are brought to his attention.
• If he investigates a situation and comes to the conclusion that something unfair happened, he will have direct access to our Chief Executive Officer to talk about it. He does not have the power to change a management decision. He does, however, have the ability to make recommendations. And we promise to look very carefully at his recommendations. If somehow you’ve been treated unfairly, we want to know.

Mr. Cherniack is well-known in the legal community for having acted for decades as a lawyer for employees only. He also has a great deal of experience in helping people deal with conflicts in their lives. That is why we have engaged him. You can have complete trust in his neutrality and experience. If you want more information about him, go to his website at www.cherniack.ca.

If you want to speak to him, you can telephone him at 204-284-6886. He can meet with you at your convenience. Anything you say to him will be treated as confidential unless you give him specific permission otherwise.

We want our employees to know that they are being listened to and dealt with fairly. You can always feel free to talk with management about issues. But if you have workplace problems and feel that you can’t do that, Mr. Cherniack is there to talk to.

Yours truly,

CEO