Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Act

Marginal note:Alternate dispute resolution process

• 182 (1) Despite any other provision of this Part, the employer and the bargaining agent for a bargaining unit may, at any time in the negotiation of a collective agreement, agree to refer any term or condition of employment of employees in the bargaining unit that may be included in a collective agreement to any eligible person for final and binding determination by whatever process the employer and the bargaining agent agree to. If the employer is a separate agency, it may enter into such an agreement to refer a term or condition for final and binding determination only with the approval of the President of the Treasury Board.

• Marginal note:Alternate process applicable only to terms referred to it

  (2) If a term or condition is referred to a person for final and binding determination, the process for resolution of a dispute concerning any other term or condition continues to be conciliation.

• Marginal note:Agreement not unilaterally changeable

  (3) Unless both parties agree, the referral of a term or condition to a person for final and binding determination remains in force until the determination is made.

• Marginal note:Form of determination

  (4) The form of the final and binding determination must, wherever possible, permit the determination to be

  • (a) read and interpreted with, or annexed to and published with, a collective agreement dealing with other terms and conditions of employment of the employees in the bargaining unit in respect of which the determination applies; and

  • (b) incorporated into and implemented by any instrument that may be required to be made by the employer or the relevant bargaining agent in respect of the determination.

• Marginal note:Binding effect

  (5) The determination is binding on the employer, the bargaining agent and the employees in the bargaining unit and is deemed to be incorporated into any collective agreement binding on the employees in the bargaining unit in respect of which the determination applies or, if there is no such agreement, is deemed to be such an agreement.

• Marginal note:Eligibility

  (6) A person is not eligible to be appointed as a person who makes a final and binding determination under this section if the person has, at any time during the six months before their date of appointment, acted in respect of any matter concerning employer-employee relations as solicitor, counsel or agent of the employer or of any employee organization that has an interest in the term or condition referred for final and binding determination.