Conciliation or Binding Arbitration?

The Public Service Labour Relations Board (PSLRB) is responsible for the administration of the collective bargaining process for federal public service employees covered under the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) and the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act (PESRA). The PSLRA introduced new approaches to the collective bargaining process.

The PSLRA provides a choice between two methods of resolving collective bargaining disputes: binding arbitration and the referral of a dispute to conciliation. The latter method gives employees the right to strike under certain conditions and is therefore often referred to as the "conciliation/strike route". The bargaining agent chooses the method of dispute resolution for each bargaining unit and can change it prior to each round of bargaining. The PESRA provides for binding arbitration as the only method available for the resolution of collective bargaining disputes. Therefore, there is no right to strike for parliamentary employees.

Regardless of which method of dispute resolution has been selected by the bargaining agent, the parties may reach a point in their face-to-face negotiations where it is increasingly difficult to make progress. At this stage, either party may choose to request the services of a mediator. The Chair of the PSLRB may at any time, if requested to do so or on his or her own, appoint a mediator to confer with the parties in a dispute and to endeavour to assist them in settling the dispute.

If there is no settlement after the involvement of a mediator, and where the method of resolution is "conciliation/strike", a Public Interest Commission (PIC) may be appointed by the Minister on the recommendation of the Chair of the PSLRB. A PIC may be composed of a single person or a panel of three persons. Members of a PIC are selected from a list of persons jointly agreed to by the parties. The PIC will report its recommendations for settlement within 30 days of its appointment to the Chair of the PSLRB, who will then make the report public.

If the PIC’s recommendations do not bring about a settlement, the PSLRA requires that a secret ballot strike vote be held before a strike may be called. All employees in the bargaining unit have the right to vote and must be given reasonable opportunity to participate in the vote. The bargaining agent may authorize or declare a strike only within the period of 60 days following the vote, provided that it has received the majority support of voters.

Arbitration boards, where that is the selected method of dispute resolution, are established in the same manner as PICs, except that they are established by the Chair of the PSLRB. Either party may request the establishment of an arbitration board. At the outset of the process, the Chairperson of the PSLRB must give the arbitration board a notice referring the matters in dispute to it for arbitration. In most cases, the parties will have reached agreement on a substantial number of provisions before arbitration is requested.

In conducting proceedings and rendering its award, an arbitration board is required to consider a number of factors, including conditions of employment in similar occupations outside the public service, the need to maintain appropriate relationships between classification levels within the public service and the need to take into account the state of the Canadian economy and of the government’s fiscal circumstances.

An arbitral award is binding on the parties and usually forms a supplement to the collective agreement.

United We Stand

“United we stand” never made as much sense as it does now. The Institute currently has 42,0000 out of 55,000 members in negotiations. Members with the right to strike (AFS, CS and CFIA-VM Groups) represent about half the entire Institute membership.

In late September, the 10 largest bargaining groups (known as the G-10) met in Ottawa to review the post-summer bargaining landscape. As expected, partly because of the summer vacation season and partly because of the election campaign, there was little movement at the bargaining tables.

Groups are moving on to arbitration and mediation. As indicated in the table above, the process is a long one. Under no circumstances should members accept ridiculous offers, such as 1.5%, 1.5%, and 1.2%, which have been presented at the bargaining table.

The Institute is a union, and a union gains strength through the solidarity of its members. Do your part and participate in all the Institute’s visibility campaigns, whether or not your Group has initiated the campaign.

Pictured above from left to right: (back row): Chantal Lecours, Section Head of Communications, Jerome Fransblow (SH), Johanne Bray, Manager of Policy and National Representational Services, John Merriman (SP), Doug Mason (AFS), Walter Belyea, Section Head of Negotiations and National Employment Relations, Hélène Rogers, Vice-President responsible for collective bargaining, André Thibodeau (CFIA-S&A), Michel Charette, Negotiator, Paul Thorburn (NRC-RO/RCO), Guy Abel (CS). Front row: Shirley Paulin, negotiator, Luc Carrière (CS), Deborah Chamney (SH), Humayoun Akhtar (RE), David Havelock (NRC-RO/RCO), Ray Lazzara (AFS) and Valerie Coupal (CFIA-VM).