Overview

The PSGB is comprised of a part-time Chair and two part-time Vice-Chairs. These three members of the PSGB are professional labour relations adjudicators who bring to the PSGB extensive experience as both mediators and arbitrators.

The administrative functions of the PSGB are performed by a full-time administrative staff under the direction of the Board’s Secretary. If you wish to use the PSGB’s dispute resolution services, your first point of contact will be with its administrative staff.

Mediation is usually the first step in the PSGB’s dispute resolution process once a complaint has been filed with the Board. A confidential mediation session provides the opportunity for grievors and their employer to resolve complaints in an expeditious and informal manner. A large proportion of complaints are now successfully resolved through the PSGB’s mediation process.

If a complaint cannot be resolved through mediation, it is then scheduled for a full adjudicative hearing. At these hearings evidence and argument are presented in a more formal manner as they would be in court. A member of the PSGB will preside over the hearing, deal with procedural evidential issues, listen to the evidence and argument, and then prepare a written decision. In more complicated cases the hearing could take longer than one day.

It can be seen from this overview that the PSGB makes available to grievors and their employer both mediation and adjudicative services. Regardless of which process is followed, however, it is always the primary concern of the PSGB that complaints be resolved in a fair, impartial, and expeditious manner.