THE PUBLIC-SERVICE STAFF RELATIONS BOARD - REGULATING FEDERAL-EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN CANADA

This article deals with an institutional and policy analysis of the Public Service Staff Relations Board of Canada. Created in 1976, the Board is a quasi-judicial statutory tribunal that is charged with the task of administering the Public Service Staff Relations Act and the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act. Approximately 208,000 federal and parliamentary public servants am covered by the respective acts grounded in more than 170 collective bargaining units. The Board's role in interpreting the governing statutes, its judgments about bargaining unit determination, managerial or confidential capacities of governmental positions, public safety and security designations of performance duties, and its interest and contract conciliation and arbitration, has produced a necessary influence over matters that are fundamental to the conduct of employer-employee relations in the Public Service of Canada. Its agenda at any given point in time is influenced by the climate of dealings between the parties, the nature of governmental action, and the dominant orientation of the Chair of the Board.