Government Operations committee  Ultimately, they all come down to our board, because the cases that aren't resolved in their boards or their commissions finally come to us. We feel very comfortable in handling them because we're in the process of trying to render our board as effective and as efficient as possi

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak with the committee today about the Public Service Labour Relations Board. I'm accompanied by Mr. Guy Lalonde, the executive director of the board. I'd like to begin by describing who we are and what we do. The board is an indepe

Government Operations committee  Not exactly. As Mr. Wouters explained, when you talk about compensation, it's much more than salary. It's all the benefits and working conditions that are examined by our group. It conducts a comparison with the private sector, it conducts a comparison with other public services

Government Operations committee  No, that's why we've created a tool. They gave us the mandate to do it. Formerly, before 1992, the Pay Research Bureau did this work. It was dissolved in 1992. It hasn't existed since then. In 2005, observing the void and absence of this information, they had to recreate this fun

Government Operations committee  You're asking me a question?

Government Operations committee  In my view, answering that question falls within the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission.

Government Operations committee  Of course, any public servant can be.

Government Operations committee  Any person who is a public servant—

Government Operations committee  Absolutely not. Our adjudicators hear the cases, and the parties make all the submissions they want to make. The adjudicator doesn't ask any questions—

Government Operations committee  A person may wish to hire his own lawyer for a number of reasons. In many cases, people who do not want to be represented by their union pay the fees of an outside lawyer out of their own pocket. It may also occur that people are not represented at all. They are what is called se

Government Operations committee  Neither the department, thus the government, nor the person or his union has an obligation to be represented by a lawyer.

Government Operations committee  It seems to make sense to me. I'm not giving you authority that you may not have; I'm just venting. I've been saying to whoever will listen to me that this is an issue that has to be dealt with.

Government Operations committee  Who has the authority? Well, Treasury Board and the Minister of Finance....

Government Operations committee  It's the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service.

Government Operations committee  First you must understand our mission and purpose. When a party appears before one of our grievance adjudicators to decide a specific issue... An employee in a particular department may have raised a psychological harassment problem and filed a grievance. The grievance follows it