Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act Annual Report

The Honourable Sean Fraser MP
Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Dear Minister,

As the chairperson of the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board, it is my pleasure to transmit to you, pursuant to section 84 of the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act, this Annual Report of the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act, covering the period from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, for submission to Parliament.

Yours sincerely,

Edith Bramwell
Chairperson
Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board

Land acknowledgment

Our offices are located on the traditional unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.

The Algonquin people have inhabited and cared for these lands from time immemorial. We take this time to show our gratitude and respect to them. We recognize the ongoing courage, fortitude and resilience of indigenous people in the face of the continuing effects of colonization and cultural genocide, including, but not limited to, the tragic and cruel history of residential schools in this country.

We recognize that acknowledging territory is only a small step along the path of reconciliation and right relations. The Board is committed to decolonizing its processes and improving access to justice.

We all have a role to play in the ongoing process of reconciliation.

Message from the Chairperson

I am pleased to present the 2022-2023 Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act Annual Report.

The Board’s mandate is to support harmonious labour relations and employment relations in the federal public sector and Parliament. To accomplish that mandate, it must serve and protect the public interest, namely, through promoting collaboration and sustained dialogue between parties, as well as through fair, credible, and accessible processes that facilitate resolving matters.

I am very pleased to announce that significant progress has been made in reducing PESRA file inventory in each of the last three fiscal years. The overall file inventory reduction for the same period has, with the close of the reporting year, exceeded 50% (see page 7 of this Report for detailed year by year statistics), and has increasing file closures in each of the three years. These statistics are largely attributable to the Board’s increased scheduling capacity.

In the 2022-2023 reporting period, several new initiatives were piloted including the introduction of settlement conferences to address labour relations matters, increases in scheduled hearings, close examination of long-term inventory, and the addition of the role of the early resolution officer to the Board’s dispute resolution services. Settlement conferences for all types of matters are now part of the Board’s standardized processes and we will extend the duration of, and expand, the early resolution officer pilot project.

These initiatives demonstrate the value of diversifying our services offering to better suit the needs of our stakeholders and the parties before us. They also support our objective of further enhancing alternate dispute resolution options. While these new initiatives were piloted in the context of non-PESRA units, their existence also expands the available dispute resolution alternative in the PESRA context.

This past year was a period of reflection on the future of work after three years of pandemic. In order to better understand the needs of our clients, a survey on the different modes of hearings was conducted in winter 2022. The results showed that while there is significant support for continued use of videoconference or hybrid hearing options, in some cases, an in-person hearing is preferable. As we gradually resumed in-person hearings and mediations, it was important to draw some lessons from our experience with videoconferencing as an effective means of providing greater access to justice in a timely and accessible manner.

I am also happy to announce that following new Governor-in-Council appointments, the Board will operate with a full complement of full-time Board members starting at the beginning of April 2023, for the first time since its creation in 2014. These new appointments are an opportunity to enhance the Board’s capacity to deliver its mandate in an efficient manner and to maintain its commitment to resolve labour relations and employment matters in an impartial and timely manner.

Finally, I wish to sincerely thank our Board members and the employees of the Board’s secretariat for their dedicated support and ongoing commitment to the accomplishment of the Board’s mandate.

Edith Bramwell
Chairperson
Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board

Who we are

Composition

The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board Act establishes the Board’s composition as follows:

• 1 full-time chairperson;
• not more than 2 full-time vice-chairpersons;
• not more than 12 full-time members; and
• as many part-time members as necessary to carry out the Board’s powers, duties, and functions.

During the reporting period, the Board was composed of the following members:

Chairperson:

• Edith Bramwell

Vice-Chairpersons:

• Marie-Claire Perrault
• Amélie Lavictoire

Full-time Board members

• Pierre-Marc Champagne (since March 13, 2023)
• Caroline Engmann
• Goretti Fukamusenge (since March 13, 2023)
• Bryan R. Gray
• Patricia Harewood (since March 13, 2023)
• Chantal Homier-Nehmé
• John G. Jaworski
• James Knopp
• Audrey Lizotte (since August 8, 2022)
• Ian R. Mackenzie
• David Orfald
• Nancy Rosenberg

Part-time Board members

• Joanne Archibald
• Fazal Bhimji (since February 3, 2023)
• Guy Giguère
• Guy Grégoire
• David Jewitt (since February 3, 2023)
• Steven B. Katkin
• David P. Olsen
• Renaud Paquet
• Leslie Anne Reaume
• Augustus Richardson

Our commitment

• Support a fair staffing environment and harmonious labour relations within the parliamentary sector.
• Resolve labour relations issues impartially and fairly and in a manner that accords with the legislation that the Board is mandated to interpret and apply
• Help parties resolve disputes in a fair, credible, and efficient manner that respects the objectives outlined in the Board’s enabling legislation.

Activities

Collective Bargaining

• The Board administers collective bargaining processes within (Parliament that are covered by the PESRA.
• The Board provides arbitration and conciliation services to facilitate the resolution of disputes that arise in the context of collective bargaining.

Mediation

• Mediation helps parties resolve their conflicts through a mutually acceptable agreement and without resorting to a hearing. It is a confidential, voluntary process led by a neutral and impartial third party. This mediation capacity is now also supported by the Early resolution officer program.
• Through mediation, the Board promotes open and respectful communication, fair and transparent employment practices, and effective dialogue.

Adjudication

• Through adjudication, the Board achieves the fair resolution of cases through several forms of dispute resolution approaches, including case management conferences, settlement conferences and hearings.
• The Board has developed a substantial body of precedents that are relevant in the resolution of disputes on an ongoing basis.

Please consult the Board’s website for more information about its activities.

The open court principle

In accordance with the constitutionally protected open court principle, the Board’s hearings are open to the public, except for exceptional circumstances. As such, it acts according to its Policy on openness and privacy to foster transparency in its processes, as well as accountability and fairness in its proceedings.

The Board’s mandate under the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act (PESRA)

Among other legislation, the Board administers Part I of the PESRA and aims to resolve disputes that arise between parliamentary employees and their employer. The PESRA covers employment and labour relations at the Library of Parliament, the House of Commons, the Senate, the Office of the Senate Ethics Officer, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, the Parliamentary Protective Services, and the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Part I of the PESRA gives parliamentary employees the right to form a union and to engage in collective bargaining to establish their terms and conditions of employment. It also gives them the right to file grievances about those conditions and, in certain cases, to refer them to adjudication before a neutral third party. Under the PESRA, the Board can also hear applications for certification, unfair-labour-practice complaints, and designations of persons employed in managerial and confidential capacities. It can also hear grievances about the interpretation and application of collective agreement or arbitral award provisions, disciplinary action resulting in a suspension or financial penalty, the demotion of an employee, the denial of an appointment, the classification of an employee, and all forms of termination of employment except rejections on probation during initial appointments.

The PESRA also gives the Board the authority to hear grievances about contraventions of regulations under the Accessible Canada Act.

Types of matters heard under the PESRA

The following types of matters may be adjudicated under the PESRA:

• applications for certification or the revocation of certification, or applications for the designation of a person employed in a managerial or confidential position;
• unfair-labour-practice complaints;
• grievances related to the interpretation or application in respect of the employee of a collective agreement provision or an arbitral award;
• grievances against a disciplinary action resulting in a suspension or financial penalty or against a termination of employment for a reason other than a rejection on probation for an initial appointment;
• grievances about a demotion, a denial of an appointment, or classification (i.e., the parties select an adjudicator who is not a Board member to hear and determine such grievances);
• grievances about a contravention of the regulations under the Accessible Canada Act if the employee has been adversely affected as a result of the contravention; and
• references under s. 70 of the PESRA, seeking the enforcement of an obligation under the collective agreement or an arbitral award that cannot be the subject of a grievance filed by an individual employee. The reference can be made by an employer or a bargaining agent.

2022-2023 at a glance

Files opened

In 2022-2023, 6 new files were referred under the PESRA – 3 group grievances, one grievance relating to the interpretation or application of a collective agreement and 2 duty of fair representation complaints.

Files closed

In 2022-2023, 23 files under the PESRA were closed. Of those, 4 were withdrawn, 7 resulted in a decision being issued, 10 were settled between the parties and 2 were settled through mediation.

Overview of the case file inventory

Forty-nine (49) files were carried forward from the previous fiscal year. Taking into account the 6 new referrals and 23 closures, 32 files will be carried forward into the next fiscal year, including 21 individual grievances, 8 complaints, 1 application, and 2 policy grievances.

Twenty-two (22) of those files involve the Parliamentary Protective Services, 4 involve the Senate, 1 involves the House of Commons, 1 involves the Parliamentary Budget Officer and 1 involves the Library of Parliament. The remaining 3 files involve the House of Commons Security Services Employee Association, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Parliamentary Protective Service, respectively.

Number of hearings scheduled

Of the 13 hearings initially scheduled for hearing during the the 2022-2023 reporting period, almost 70% were resolved without the need to resort to a formal hearing.

Resolutions prior to a hearing can occur for several reasons such as settlements or settlement discussions, withdrawals, or other reasons such as longer than expected pre-hearing preparations, or the unexpected unavailability of a party or a witness.

The graphic below illustrates the outcomes for the files scheduled for hearing.

Mediation

Two (2) mediations were held under the PESRA in 2022-2023 and both resulted in a settlement.

Collective bargaining

In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the Board received two requests for arbitration. These requests both involved bargaining units at the Library of Parliament represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada: the Library Sciences group and the Library Technician group. These matters were addressed in a consolidated hearing that began in February 2023 and has subsequently been carried over into the upcoming fiscal year.

Moving forward

As we move forward, we will continue to focus on providing timely access to justice through respectful, efficient, accessible, and fair processes as well as promoting harmonious labour relations in the public sector.

The next fiscal year will also be an opportunity to continue to reacquaint ourselves with in-person hearings, which provide us with closer contact to our parties and stakeholders, while continuing to leverage the use of technology. One of our goals will be to find the right balance between old and new practices to improve our service delivery, ensuring that parties appearing before the Board have the ability to attend hearings in person, virtually, or in a hybrid setting. This will allow us to overcome some barriers and modernize our approach to delivering access to justice.