FPSLREB Decisions

To:   Mr. David Kates, Arbitrator

[1]   By letter of September 23, 2003, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, pursuant to section 50 of the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act (the Act), requested the appointment of an arbitrator for the Technical Group bargaining unit.

[2]   Sections 47 to 61 of the Act apply to arbitration.  The following sections, which set out the procedure for arbitration, are of particular interest:

52. (1) Subject to section 55, the matters in dispute specified in the notice under section 50 and in any notice under section 51 constitute the terms of reference of the Board in relation to the request for arbitration and the Board shall, after considering the matters in dispute together with any other matter that the Board considers necessarily incidental to the resolution of the matters in dispute, render an arbitral award in respect thereof.

(2) Where, at any time before an arbitral award is rendered, the parties reach agreement on any matter in dispute referred to the Board under subsection (1) and enter into a collective agreement in respect thereof, the matters in dispute so referred to the Board shall be deemed not to include that matter and no arbitral award shall be rendered by the Board in respect thereof.

53. In the conduct of proceedings before it and in rendering an arbitral award in respect of a matter in dispute, the Board shall consider

(a) the needs of the employer affected for qualified employees,

(b) the need to maintain appropriate relationships in the conditions of employment as between different grade levels within an occupation and as between occupations of employees,

(c) the need to establish terms and conditions of employment that are fair and reasonable in relation to the qualifications required, the work performed, the responsibility assumed and the nature of the services rendered, and

(d) any other factor that to it appears to be relevant to the matter in dispute,

and, so far as consistent with the requirements of the employer, the Board shall give due regard to maintaining comparability of conditions of employment of employees with those that are applicable to persons in similar employment in the public service of Canada.

53.1 Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, during the period in which the referral of a dispute to arbitration as the process for the resolution of a dispute under the Public Service Staff Relations Act is suspended under paragraph 62(1)(b) of that Act, the Board shall, in rendering an arbitral award, limit the aggregate amount of any increase in pay and other benefits in respect of any dispute applicable to employees to that concluded through collective bargaining or otherwise by a comparable bargaining unit in the Public Service, within the meaning of that Act, after the compensation plan applicable to that bargaining unit ceased to be continued by virtue of the Public Sector Compensation Act.

54. Subject to this Part, the Board shall, before rendering an arbitral award in respect of a matter in dispute, give full opportunity to both parties to present evidence and make submissions to it.

55. (1) Subsection 43(2)^[1] applies, with such modifications as the circumstances require, in relation to an arbitral award.

(2) No arbitral award shall deal with the standards, procedures or processes governing the appointment, appraisal, promotion, demotion, transfer, lay-off or release of employees, or with any term or condition of employment of employees that was not a subject of negotiation between the parties during the period before arbitration was requested in respect thereof.

(3) An arbitral award shall deal only with terms and conditions of employment of employees in the bargaining unit in respect of which the request for arbitration was made.

56. (1) An arbitral award shall be signed by the member of the Board who is not a member selected from a panel appointed under section 47^[2] and copies thereof shall be transmitted to the parties to the dispute and no report or observations thereon shall be made or given by either of the members selected from a panel appointed under section 47.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), a decision of the majority of the members of the Board in respect of the matters in dispute shall be the arbitral award in respect of the matters in dispute.

(3) Where the majority of the members of the Board in respect of the matters in dispute cannot agree on the terms of the arbitral award to be rendered in respect thereof, the decision of the member of the Board who is not a member selected from a panel appointed under section 47 shall be the arbitral award in respect of the matters in dispute.

(4) An arbitral award shall, wherever possible, be made in such form

(a) as will be susceptible of being read and interpreted with, or annexed to and published with, any collective agreement dealing with other terms and conditions of employment of employees in the bargaining unit in respect of which the arbitral award applies; and

(b) as will enable its incorporation into and implementation by regulations, by-laws, directives or other instruments that may be required to be made or issued by the employer or the relevant bargaining agent in respect thereof.

[3]   With its letter of September 23, 2003, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada provided a list of the terms and conditions of employment that it wished to have referred to the arbitrator.  That letter, the terms and conditions of employment and supporting material are attached hereto as SCHEDULE I.

[4]   By letter of October 31, 2003, the House of Commons provided its position on the terms and conditions of employment that the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada wished to have referred to the arbitrator.  That letter and supporting material are attached hereto as SCHEDULE II.

[5]   Accordingly, pursuant to section 52 of the Act, the matters on which the arbitrator shall report his findings and recommendations in this dispute are those set out as outstanding in SCHEDULE I attached hereto.

Yvon Tarte,
Chairperson

DATED AT OTTAWA, March 22, 2004

[1]  43. (2) No collective agreement shall provide, directly or indirectly, for the alteration or elimination of any existing term or condition of employment or the establishment of any new term or condition of employment

(a)   the alteration or elimination of which or the establishment of which, as the case may be, would require or have the effect of requiring the enactment or amendment of any legislation by Parliament, except for the purpose of appropriating moneys required for its implementation; or
(b)   that has been or after the coming into force of this Part is, as the case may be, established pursuant to the Government Employees Compensation Act or the Public Service Superannuation Act.

[2]  47. (1) The Board shall appoint two panels, one panel to consist of at least three persons representative of the interests of the employers and the other to consist of at least three persons representative of the interests of employees.

(2)   A member of a panel appointed by the Board under subsection (1) shall be appointed to hold office for such term as the Board considers appropriate.
(3)   A person is not eligible to hold office as a member of a panel if the person is not eligible to be a member of the Board or, if the person is not eligible to be a member of the Board, unless the person is a member of the Board pursuant to a selection under section 48.