Labour dispute resolution machinery, procedures

Dear Editor
In the field of Industrial Relations, effective means of settlement of labour disputes are determined by the established machinery through consultations, negotiations, with third-party assistance in collective bargaining processes, and by statutory regulations. When an employer recognises a trade union as the sole bargaining agent of the workers in any enterprise or industry, the parties usually sign and accede to a collective agreement for recognition and the avoidance and settlement of disputes.
Embodied in that recognition agreement is the process for collective bargaining, and a grievance or representation procedure which sets out the various stages through which a grievance or dispute can be processed. Generally, the procedures include the internal stages for dispute resolution at the enterprise or organisation level, with specified time frames (may be stages i-iii). Failure at the last internal stage is followed by conciliation/mediation (stage iv), and then arbitration (stage v), if there is still an impasse.
In other cases, statutory requirements under the Labour Act and the Essential Services Act provide for adjudication by means of compulsory arbitration by an industrial tribunal, for final and binding resolution. As an example, for the avoidance and settlement of disputes in the Civil Service, the procedures for dispute resolution in the Public Service are outlined in a Memorandum of Agreement between the Guyana Public Service Union and the Public Service Ministry as follows:
When any question relating to conditions of service – excluding matters which fall under the purview of the Public Service Commission – which may give rise to a dispute is raised by or on behalf of any member of the union, the following procedure shall be observed:
Stage I: A member, individually or accompanied by not more than one; or, in the case of group representation, not more than two members of the Branch Grievance Committee, may approach the Supervisor/Sectional Head, in the first instance, with a view to avoiding a dispute or settling a matter in dispute. The Supervisor/Sectional Head shall endeavour to do all he possibly can to effect a satisfactory settlement within two (2) days.
Stage 2: Failing a settlement at Stage I, the member and/or his Branch Grievance Committee may approach the Head of the Personnel Unit of the Ministry/Department for a settlement. The Head of the Personnel Unit shall endeavour to meet the member and/or his Branch Grievance Committee as early as possible, but within two (2) working days, to effect a settlement.
Stage 3: Failing a settlement at Stage 2, the Branch Secretary and/or the General Secretary of the Union may request, in writing, a meeting with the Permanent Secretary/Departmental Head, who shall endeavour to hold such a meeting as soon as possible, but within five (5) working days, to bring about a satisfactory settlement of the matter.
Stage 4: Failing a settlement at Stage 3, the Grievance Committee of the Union may then refer the matter to the Permanent Secretary of the Public Service Ministry in writing. The Permanent Secretary of the Public Service Ministry shall endeavour to meet the Grievance Committee of the Union as soon as possible, but within two weeks, for the purpose of discussing the matter or matters in dispute, and shall endeavour to effect a satisfactory settlement with all dispatch. Failing a settlement at Stage 3, the matter may be referred by either side, within fourteen (14) working days, to the Ministry of Labour for conciliation.
Stage 5: Failing settlement at Stage 4, the matter may be referred by either side, within fourteen (14) days, to Arbitration. The Arbitration Panel shall consist of one member nominated by the Public Service Ministry, one member nominated by the Union, and a Chairman agreed upon by the Public Service Ministry and Union. In event of the parties failing to reach agreement, the Chairman shall be nominated by the Minister of Labour. Any award by the Tribunal shall be final and binding.
The agreement between the Union and the Government also provides for other existing statutory machinery for arbitration, or other legal machinery which may be established by the National Assembly, as set out in the words of the Agreement: “none of the above clause shall be interpreted to preclude the right of either the Ministry or the Union to make use of any existing or future national or other industrial machinery that may be legally established from time to time”. (Clause 7)
The Agreement further affirms the established principles and norms in the practice of Industrial and Labour Relations during the stages of negotiation set out above: “that there shall be no lock-out by the Ministry concerned; nor any strike, stoppage of work whether of a partial or a general character by the Union, refusal to work, slow down or retarding of production on the part of the Union, nor shall there be reduction of the normal level of output by any members of the Union”.

Registration and
enforceability of Collective Agreements
All signed collective agreements are to be presented to the Chief Labour Officer within three months of signing, in accordance with the Labour Act, which makes every such agreement legally enforceable, unless the agreement states that the whole agreement or any part of it is not intended to be legally binding.
Conciliation/mediation in industrial disputes is a consensus-based process, whether it is a dispute of interest or a dispute of rights. This is an essential process in the field of Industrial Relations. The conciliation process seeks to encourage disputing parties to discuss their differences with a view to assisting them to develop their own proposed solution as an extension of negotiations. The outcome is essentially the agreement of the two parties with the assistance of the conciliator.
The Department of Labour in Guyana, as in many other countries, is the principal third party dealing with individual and collective labour disputes, and provides a free and voluntary conciliation service under the authority of the Labour Act, enacted to regulate the relationship between employers and employees and the settlement of disputes between them. Section 4 of this Act empowers the Minister to take any expedient steps to promote a settlement.
Conciliation/mediation has been one of the principal means used to resolve industrial disputes, with the Chief Labour Officer being the chief conciliation officer. The Department of Labour, or the conciliation service, by virtue of the very nature of the service provided, embodies the concept of non-political conciliation/mediation, and must maintain a role of non-partisan conciliation/mediation if it is to enjoy the confidence of the social partners. It must function with credibility, impartiality, high professional standards, and integrity to command the respect of social partners and state agencies.
From the ILO perspective, conciliation and mediation are regarded as equivalent terms, referring essentially to the same kind of third-party intervention to promote voluntary settlement of disputes. Technically, conciliation is limited to encouraging employers and unions to develop their own proposed solutions through rational discussion of their differences. Mediation, on the other hand, is a stronger form of third-party intervention, in which the mediator can offer to the parties proposals for settlement of any industrial dispute. In practice, however, the technical distinction is blurred or disappears, as both words are used interchangeably to express the same process of third-party intervention.
The use of the conciliation service of the Department of Labour is required by a collective labour agreement, or at the intervention of the Chief Labour Officer; or, exceptionally, by the Minister, given the fact that the Department is the sole agency which provides this service free to employers and unions. This is usually the required procedure before resort to adjudication through arbitration or some other means for final settlement.

With Thanks
Samuel J Goolsarran