Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service was established to provide dispute resolution and dispute prevention assistance to trade unions and employers under the jurisdiction of the Canada Labour Code . The Code governs federally regulated employees in key sectors of the economy.

The Service thus offers employers and unionized employees tools for:

• dispute resolution through the services of conciliation and mediation officers—third parties whose mandate is to assist both parties in reaching a mutual agreement; and
• dispute prevention services that, in this case, are intended to prevent disputes before they occur. This is achieved by training workshops on collective bargaining and joint conflict resolution, among other things. This section also contains information on grievance mediation. These are all ways of resolving disagreements and improving industrial relations during the term of the collective agreement.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service also plays an important role in another method of conflict resolution: arbitration. The Service coordinates the appointment of arbitrators to resolve certain types of disputes governed by the Canada Labour Code , such as grievances, unjust dismissals and wage recovery.

The Service is also responsible for the Industrial Relations Internship Program. The objective of this program is to recruit and train qualified candidates for conciliation and mediation officer positions in the Labour Program and, more specifically, at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Users interested in taking up this challenge will find all the necessary information in this section.

Incidentally, in Canada, the use of neutral third parties – conciliation and mediation officers – appointed by the government to resolve labour relations disputes, dates back to the Conciliation Act of 1900. The Conciliation Act created the federal Labour Department with a mandate to assist in preventing and resolving labour disputes.

Over the years, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and its forerunners have provided employers and unions with professional skills essential to the resolution of their collective bargaining disputes.