About the Labour Relations Program

The Labour Relations Program (LRP), which includes the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), promotes cooperative labour relations between unions and employers in federally regulated workplaces. This encompasses:

• banking
• telecommunications
• broadcasting
• air
• interprovincial rail
• road and pipeline transportation
• shipping
• uranium mining
• grain handling
• workplaces in the territories,
• Aboriginal public administration, and
• some Crown corporations

The program:

• provides mediation and conciliation services to assist employers and unions in achieving collective agreements without resorting to a work stoppage, and
• offers dispute prevention and relationship development assistance to parties in the form of:
  • skills development training
  • facilitation services, and
  • grievance mediation

This program also appoints arbitrators for:

• grievances under Part I of the Canada Labour Code (Code)
• unjust dismissal and wage recovery appeals under Part III of the Code, and
• appeals under the Wage Earner Protection Program Act