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Section II: Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

Strategic Outcome: Resolution of labour relations issues in the federal public service and in Parliament in an impartial manner

Program Activity by Strategic Outcome

Program Activity: Adjudication, Mediation, and Compensation Analysis and Research

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ thousands)
2011–12		2012–13		2013–14
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
64	9,780	64	9,780	64	9,780

Program Activity Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets
Cases are resolved through adjudication in accordance with the principles of law	Among decisions referred for judicial review, percentage of challenges upheld in relation to the total number of decisions issued over a 5-year period.	Less than 2%
Cases and collective bargaining disputes are resolved through mediation interventions	Percentage of mediations where grievances, collective bargaining, disputes or complaint issues are reduced or resolved.	75%
Compensation data is available for negotiations by the parties	Percentage of time that compensation information is relevant and available in time for negotiations.	100%

Planning Highlights

Adjudication Services

Given its ongoing commitment to improve its services, the PSLRB will continue to strive towards having no cases that are older than two years after the date on which they were filed. It will also seize the opportunity to enhance services that received less than satisfactory ratings in its Client Satisfaction Survey, the most recent undertaken in late 2010.

For several years, the PSLRB has been concerned that its growing adjudication caseload has affected its ability to handle cases in a timely manner. The total number of cases before the PSLRB, which includes new cases and cases carried over from previous years, continues to increase every year.

Grievances referred to adjudication account for 80% of the PSLRB’s cases, which appears the norm as the PSLRB continues to receive a large volume of grievance cases. Many of the PSLRB’s clients — employers and bargaining agents — continue to have internal capacity issues, resulting in more requests to postpone cases, which add to the time required to dispose of them, and they remain part of the caseload. The PSLRB’s own capacity in terms of having fewer full-time Board members can contribute to the high volume of outstanding cases.

The PSLRB’s Client Consultation Committee, which has equal representation from bargaining agents and employers, meet quarterly to seek clients’ views on the PSLRB’s processes, practices, policies and rules as they relate to its adjudication and case-mediation services. The overall goal is to enable the PSLRB to more effectively and efficiently manage its caseload.

The PSLRB is also undertaking several other case management initiatives with different employer/bargaining agent groups to try to address specific high-volume sets of cases. The PSLRB will continue to focus on more directive case management, closely monitor key cases, more carefully examine requests for postponements, use screening practices that enable grouping similar cases and use pre-hearing conferences more frequently. It will also continue to closely consult with employers and bargaining agents to discuss options for accelerating the processing of cases through mediation and adjudication.

Mediation Services

Mediation contributes directly to the PSLRB’s strategic outcome as it enables parties to resolve disputes early and at the lowest possible level. The mediation process allows for a free flow of information and views in an environment that is far less adversarial than the more formal adjudication process. Mediators provided by the PSLRB are impartial third parties with no decision-making power with respect to the outcome of the process. Rather, they intervene in a dispute to help parties voluntarily reach their own mutually acceptable solutions.

The PSLRB believes in the merits of offering timely and impartial mediation to the parties. In essence, it is a pivotal tool that enables the PSLRB to fulfill its statutory mandate in both adjudication and collective bargaining. High-quality mediation and conflict resolution services that are timely, impartial, transparent and efficient will continue to be key elements of the PSLRB’s statutory mandate in 2011-12.

In 2011-12, the PSLRB will continue its practice of consulting closely with employers and bargaining agents to discuss options for accelerating the processing of mediation cases. Through continued consultations and bilateral discussions, the PSLRB’s efforts will focus on identifying areas for streamlining or grouping cases and on processing issues that might result in missed or delayed opportunities for mediation.

The PSLRB’s outreach efforts will also continue as the feedback received from its two-and-a-half day joint (bargaining agent, management and human resources) training session continues to be very positive. The PSLRB is also encouraged by the feedback that it has received on its mediation educational information, which is available on its website. The PSLRB’s video entitled "Best Interests, An Introduction to Grievance Mediation" is an appreciated learning tool that may be useful to the increasing number of self-represented complainants and grievors.

The coming year will also require the PSLRB’s Dispute Resolution Services to be attentive to the parties’ needs for the mediation of collective bargaining disputes. The unprecedented recent early signing of collective agreements between the Treasury Board and a few large bargaining units several months in advance of the expiry dates of certain collective agreements has resulted in an unclear collective bargaining landscape at this time for the public service as a whole. Those developments, coupled with the fiscal situation and budgetary constraints affecting departments and agencies, have created an uncertain environment for the PSLRB’s mediation services in terms of the timing and quantity of eventual mediation sessions for the 2011 round of bargaining. As a result, the PSLRB will increase its availability to the parties, enabling them to have open and frank discussions to more easily share information and clarify their respective bargaining objectives and constraints in anticipation of the next round of bargaining. That work is at the core of the PSLRB’s mandate and contributes to maintaining a workplace that strives to benefit Canadians through the smooth delivery of government programs and services.

Compensation Analysis and Research Services

The CARS has launched a series of joint consultation sessions with employers and bargaining agents to review all aspects of its compensation research strategy and to enlist their cooperation, when required, to finalize all study-related tools.

Since its last study (Total Compensation Study on Health-Related Occupations in Canada), which covered health occupations, the CARS has been working with Statistics Canada, which has been helping develop the CARS’ national study sampling strategy. The CARS will also contact the private sector to conduct field visits and collect on-site data. Several competitive processes have been launched to obtain external expertise to develop the questionnaire instruments and databases that will be used for job matching and data collection.

In 2011-12, the PSLRB plans to launch the first of a three-year ramping-up strategy for its main national compensation comparability study, targeting 20% of the full sample of participating organizations, which involves putting in place the necessary processes and data systems. The CARS plans to target 40% of the participating organizations in 2012-13 and the remaining 40% in 2013-14. To minimize the respondent burden, the strategy will focus on participating organizations, rather than on specific occupations. The CARS also plans to collect total compensation data annually from every participating organization but will limit the collection of information to the characteristics of selected benefits and working conditions at longer intervals to further minimize the burden on respondents and to contain both data collection and analysis costs.

Another way to minimize the respondent burden is to collect as much data as possible in a single study rather than in occupation-specific surveys, which require that participants be revisited repeatedly. An annual national study that covers the most prevalent occupations will be conducted, with smaller, more focused studies for rare occupations that require a more targeted approach.

Over the three-year study period, a user-friendly, secure online data collection program will be deployed for employers to update and upload their respective data on salaries and other related costs for the occupations that were matched in the initial visit. That functionality will enable the PSLRB to lower its operating costs by revisiting only the organizations that have undergone structural changes that affected the surveyed occupations, in addition to organizations joining the sample for the first time.

Benefits for Canadians

The PSLRB’s program activity — administering the collective bargaining and grievance adjudication systems of the federal public service and Parliament, including mediation services and compensation analysis and research — contributes to the Government of Canada’s Government Affairs outcome area and to supporting well-managed and efficient government operations. By resolving labour relations issues in an impartial manner, the PSLRB contributes to a productive and efficient workplace that benefits Canadians from coast to coast through the smooth delivery of government programs and services.

Program Activity: Internal Services

Human Resources (FTEs) and Planned Spending ($ thousands)
2011–12		2012–13		2013–14
FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending	FTEs	Planned Spending
29	3,969	29	3,969	29	3,969

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