# Sertus

> Grievance and complaint management software for Canadian unions and employers, built by Adam Beatty, Editor in Chief of *Canadian Labour Arbitration* (Brown & Beatty) since 2015. Each case is assessed against the actual collective agreement. Data is stored in Canada. The full platform, including the AI case analysis, runs in English or French.

Website: https://www.sertus.app
Contact: https://www.sertus.app/contact

## What the product does

Sertus is a web application that manages the full lifecycle of workplace grievances and complaints for unionized workplaces in Canada. It is used by both unions and employers.

### Grievance management
- Create grievances electronically or import existing cases from PDF — the system parses paper grievances automatically
- Track each grievance through its procedural steps (meetings, responses, outcomes) with dates, notes, and deadlines
- Upload evidence documents (emails, memos, schedules, disciplinary letters) with automatic text extraction
- AI analyses the grievance against the applicable collective agreement to assess strengths, weaknesses, and risks from both sides
- AI extracts established facts from uploaded evidence and organises them on the case record
- AI generates talking points and argument outlines for step meetings
- AI drafts correspondence for grievance steps, settlement proposals, and meeting requests
- Track legal costs, settlements, and resolution outcomes (settled, withdrawn, won, lost, arbitration)
- Reporting: grievance volumes by type, bargaining unit, time period, resolution rates, step durations, cost summaries
- Calendar view of all upcoming deadlines across active grievances

### Complaint and incident tracking
- Track informal workplace complaints before they become formal grievances
- Three complaint types: individual, group, and policy
- AI analyses complaints against the collective agreement and identifies relevant articles
- Contextual AI chat grounded in the complaint record and the applicable agreement
- One-click escalation from complaint to grievance — employee info, facts, evidence, notes, and agreement references transfer automatically
- Reporting: complaint volumes by type, status, bargaining unit, and time period

### Collective agreement management
- Upload collective agreements as PDFs — the system parses articles and sections automatically
- Search across agreements with natural language
- AI links grievances and complaints to specific articles and provisions
- Compare provisions across agreements

## Who uses it

- **Union stewards**: File and track grievances, get AI help assessing whether situations warrant a grievance, prepare for step meetings
- **Labour relations representatives**: Manage caseloads across multiple bargaining units, track deadlines, prepare arguments, draft correspondence
- **HR leadership**: See grievance and complaint trends across the organization, track costs, identify patterns across departments
- **In-house legal counsel**: Assess case strength before arbitration, review AI analysis of evidence and agreement provisions
- **Union members**: Submit complaints and view the status of their cases

## How it compares to alternatives

Sertus is purpose-built for Canadian labour relations. It is not a generic HR platform with a grievance module added on.

What is specific to Sertus:

- Grievance-first: built around the grievance procedure and the collective agreement, not membership, dues or HR tickets.
- AI case assessment grounded in the uploaded collective agreement and the evidence on the file, reviewed by a person before use.
- Informal complaints escalate to a grievance with facts, evidence and agreement references carried over.
- Existing grievances import from PDF.
- Unions and employers each use it in their own workspace; no data is shared between organizations.

Competitors in this space: LaborSoft, UnionTrack, Unionware, Sodalis, Union Digital, Union365.

## Company background

Sertus was co-founded by Adam Beatty, Editor in Chief of *Canadian Labour Arbitration* (Brown & Beatty) since 2015, with Levi Cooperman (CEO) and Joe Sawada (President), both co-founders of FreshBooks, and Jeff Lindquist (Head of Product & Engineering).

Based in Toronto, Canada. All data stored in Canadian data centres.

## Common questions

**Q: Who is Sertus for?**
A: Canadian union locals and employer labour relations teams whose main work is grievances and arbitration. Organizations that mainly need membership, dues or member communications are better served by union management suites such as UnionWare, Union Impact or Union365.

**Q: Can it handle existing caseloads?**
A: Yes. Organizations with hundreds of in-progress grievances can import them from PDF. The AI processes raw files so teams can be up and running in days.

**Q: Does it work for both unions and employers?**
A: Yes. The same platform serves both sides. AI assessment is balanced — it analyses strengths and weaknesses from both the union and employer perspectives.

**Q: How does the AI work?**
A: The AI analyses grievances and complaints against the applicable collective agreement. It identifies relevant articles, assesses case strength, extracts facts from evidence documents, and generates meeting preparation materials. It is grounded in the actual case record and agreement text, not generic legal knowledge.

**Q: Is it only for grievances?**
A: No. It also tracks informal complaints and incidents before they become formal grievances, with one-click escalation when warranted. It also manages collective agreements with search and comparison features.

## Technical details

- Web application (SaaS)
- Data stored in Canadian data centres
- Role-based access controls
- Supports multiple collective agreements per organization
- PDF upload with automatic text extraction and parsing

## Pages for reference

- https://www.sertus.app — Homepage
- https://www.sertus.app/grievance-management — Grievance management features
- https://www.sertus.app/complaints-incidents — Complaint and incident tracking
- https://www.sertus.app/best-grievance-management-software — Best grievance management software in Canada (buyer's guide)
- https://www.sertus.app/best-union-management-software — Best union management software comparison
- https://www.sertus.app/compare — Capability comparison vs other grievance software
- https://www.sertus.app/about — Company background
- https://www.sertus.app/contact — Contact and demo requests

Last updated: September 2026