Most grievance software stores your files. Sertus understands them.
Article-level extraction from every collective agreement. Weekly readiness scoring across your whole grievance roster. Drafts that cite the article they rely on. Designed by the co-author of Canadian Labour Arbitration(Brown & Beatty), the reference text Canadian arbitrators cite.
Table stakes — Sertus included
Grievance intake, step-deadline tracking, role-based access, document storage, audit trails, status reports. Every system in this comparison does these. The rest of this page is what Sertus does that the others do not.
1. Reads your collective agreement
Other union software stores the CBA as a PDF and lets you search the filename. Sertus extracts every article so each clause can be linked, cited, and asked questions of.
| Sertus | Typical labour-relations software |
|---|---|
Article-level extraction from every uploaded agreement Splits the CBA into its real article hierarchy (Article 8, 8.01, 8.01(a)…) so each clause is its own object — linkable, citable, and addressable by every other feature. | PDF stored as a file. Search by filename or find-in-page. |
Ask the agreement a question, get the article that engages Semantic search across the agreement. "What does this say about progressive discipline?" returns the article that actually engages, not a keyword match buried in a 300-page PDF. | Keyword search across stored documents, where it exists at all. |
Compare one question across multiple agreements at once Ask the same question across six bargaining-unit agreements simultaneously. The answer is the side-by-side article text from each agreement, with citations. | One agreement at a time, opened in separate tabs and compared by hand. |
2. Reads your evidence and your case
Other union software is a folder with metadata. Sertus understands what is in the folder — and uses it.
| Sertus | Typical labour-relations software |
|---|---|
Grievance forms parsed on upload Drop a signed grievance form. Sertus extracts grievor, bargaining unit, articles cited, statement, and remedy sought. The case is filed and ready to work in seconds. | PDF uploaded and stored. Grievor, articles, statement, and remedy are typed in by hand. |
Every piece of evidence read and summarised Each upload is OCR'd, extracted, and summarised. The summary is what the AI reads when assessing the case — context never goes stale, and reviewers can scan a file in seconds. | Files stored. Reviewers open and read each one to know what is in it. |
Case timeline drafted automatically Established Facts builds the chronological narrative of agreed facts from evidence and provided context. Reps mark facts user-verified; verified facts override AI inference downstream. | Free-text case notes. |
One-click grievor history across grievances and complaints Open a grievor's record and see every grievance, complaint, and group involvement in one view — typo-tolerant search, employer-aware, surfaced into the AI when assessing the file. | Search by name in each module separately and cross-reference manually. |
3. Grades each grievance
No competitor markets a quality rubric for grievance work. Sertus reads every active grievance and tells the labour director where each one stands.
| Sertus | Typical labour-relations software |
|---|---|
Case Readiness audit (pleading, merits, evidence) Three-stage audit per active grievance: is the pleading clear, is there merits risk under the cited article, is there evidence to substantiate the claim at Step 2. Run org-wide on demand. | Not offered. |
Closure-quality scoring on resolved cases Settled, withdrawn, and arbitrated cases get their own rubric: are the closure documents on file, are the terms recorded, can a reader two years from now reconstruct what happened. | Not offered. |
Confidence scores so reviewers know when to second-check Each verdict carries a confidence score. 60–70 means "could be argued either way, a human should review." Reviewers triage by signal, not by reading every file. | Not offered. |
4. Drafts the next move
Drafts that have read the case file, the agreement, and the grievor's history — not generic templates with mail-merge fields.
| Sertus | Typical labour-relations software |
|---|---|
Step-2 letters and follow-ups grounded in the case Generated from the actual file: the cited articles, the established facts, the evidence on hand, the steward of record. Every draft is editable in place before sending. | Boilerplate templates with name and date merge fields. |
Paste an inbound email, get a measured reply Drop in the employer's reply. Sertus drafts a response that sticks to the file and stays professional regardless of the inbound tone. | Not offered. Reps draft replies by hand. |
Drafts cite the article they rely on When the AI argues a position, it points at the article number from your agreement. Reviewers can verify the citation in one click — the article is indexed in Sertus. | Free-text drafts. No citations, no source linking. |
Authored by the people Canadian arbitrators cite
Sertus is designed by the co-author of Canadian Labour Arbitration(Brown & Beatty) — the reference text Canadian arbitrators cite from the bench. The product is shaped from inside the labour-relations practice, not adapted from generic case management.
That shows up in concrete places: the merits rubric scopes arguments to the cited article, the closure-quality audit grades what the file looks like for the next person to pick up, and the AI is grounded in the agreement and the established facts — not the model's training data.
What this changes for the team
For the labour director
Catch every weak grievance before it lands at Step 2 with gaps. Closed cases get their own quality read so handover is clean. No more reading 41 files to find the three that need attention.
For the steward / rep
Drop the PDF and skip the data entry. Ask the agreement a question and get the article. Draft a Step-2 letter that has read the file. Less typing, more representation.
For the local
Grievances, complaints, members, and agreements live in one searchable place — with audit trails and tenant isolation that hold up under SOC 2 review.
See it on your own files
Bring a recent grievance and a collective agreement. We'll show you the readiness audit, the article search, and the Step-2 draft on your own facts in under thirty minutes.
Last updated: May 2026