Office of Conciliation

The Office of Conciliation has primary responsibility for providing collective bargaining related dispute resolution services throughout the state. 

The three primary functions of the Office are:

1. administration of the impasse resolution procedures, including interest arbitration
2. administration of the voluntary grievance arbitration and staff mediation/arbitration procedures
3. administration of the Labor-Management Committee program

Effective March 1, 2023, the PERB Office of Conciliation will be converting to Electronic Filing.  After March 1, 2023, the Office of Conciliation will accept only electronic filings, though the Director of Conciliation retains discretion in determining whether to grant the application of a party to file and serve in paper form due to hardship, inability to comply with the procedure, or other good cause shown.  Absent the Director of Conciliation’s advance approval of paper filing, Office of Conciliation filings must be electronically mailed to one of two electronic mail addresses, dependent upon the subject matter of the filing.

The Director fulfills the obligation to assist in the resolution of disputes by:

1. reviewing Declarations of Impasse between public employers and the unions representing their employees;
2. determining if impasse exists in the negotiations;
3. discerning the appropriate impasse resolution procedure applicable to the negotiations:
   • for units of employees in educational institutions, the procedure calls for mediation, fact-finding and continued negotiations until the parties reach agreement;
   • for police, fire fighters, some transit, and certain other units, mediation is followed by interest arbitration;
   • all other public employee units are provided with mediation and fact-finding, which may be succeeded by a legislative determination of employment terms, if no agreement is reached;
   • in some instances, after mediation and fact-finding have been unsuccessful, the Director may determine that additional assistance should be provided to the parties, in which case a conciliator is assigned.
4. choosing between staff and per diem panel neutrals when making mediator, fact finder and conciliator assignments;
5. ensuring that a panel of qualified labor relations neutrals is available to provide mediation, fact-finding, conciliation and interest arbitration services on a per diem basis.

The final step of the impasse procedure for police, firefighters, some transit and certain other employees, provides for compulsory interest arbitration. If the dispute is not resolved in mediation, either party may petition the board to refer the dispute to a public arbitration panel.
In all cases, the arbitration panel is made up of:

• One member appointed by the employer.
• One member appointed by the employee organization.
• One public member selected jointly by the parties, who serves as chairperson.

Should the parties be unable to agree upon the chairperson, PERB will provide a list of qualified persons from which the parties must select the chairperson through an alternate striking process. Parties bear the cost of their designee and share in the costs of the public member.

The panel may:

• Hold hearings.
• Take written and oral testimony and other evidence.
• Upon joint request of the panel members representing the parties, refer an issue back to the parties for further negotiation.
• By majority vote, make a determination and award which is final and binding on the parties for a period of time up to two years from the expiration date of any previous collective bargaining agreement.

Voluntary Grievance Arbitration Procedures

PERB provides a process by which disputes may be resolved through voluntary grievance arbitration in accordance with Part 207 of its Rules of Procedure. 

Administered by PERB for a fee of $50 per party, the process is invoked through the filing of a Demand for Arbitration by either party, or through a joint Submission to Arbitrate. 

The procedure basically requires that:

1. Petitioner serve on respondent a Demand for Arbitration and file two copies with the Director of Conciliation, together with proof of service on the respondent; or parties to a written agreement may jointly request arbitration by forwarding a Submission to Arbitrate.
2. The Director of Conciliation will forward an identical panel list of seven arbitrators for each party to rank their selections in preferential order. Each party has the right to reject one entire panel list.
3. Upon timely receipt of each party’s selections, and consistent with their rankings, the Director of Conciliation will designate the arbitrator.

Staff Mediation/Arbitration Procedures

As an alternative to the Voluntary Grievance Arbitration Procedure, PERB offers a streamlined process for resolving grievances, Staff Mediation-Arbitration of Grievances (Med-Arb).

Med-Arb is an expedited process that combines two well-founded dispute settlement techniques.

First, the Director of Conciliation must be served with a Joint Request form signed by both parties to the grievance, and accompanied by a $50 per party administrative fee. 

Second, if the grievance is accepted as appropriate, a member of PERB’s professional staff is assigned to serve as mediator/arbitrator. The assigned staff person first attempts to mediate a settlement of the grievance, but if unsuccessful in that effort, stays on to hold a hearing and render an expedited, binding arbitration award.

The Arbitration Panel Administrator is charged with managing program details on a daily basis.

Facilitated Intensive Negotiations (FIN) is an alternative model of collective bargaining in which the parties commit to a limited but continuous meeting schedule to expedite the negotiations process. A PERB staff mediator facilitates the process using aspects of preventative mediation during three consecutive days of bargaining. FIN services are offered based on staff availability.

FIN addresses common bargaining problems such as: protracted negotiations; authority (decision makers) not at the bargaining table; the role of extended teams; too many proposals; size of Teams (too large OR too small); guarding information; and the role for professional negotiators. FIN bridges those bargaining problems by offering solutions, such as: setting actual dates for completion (3 days of continuous bargaining & proposal exchange 2 weeks prior to bargaining); decision makers MUST agree to be at the table; extended teams are expected to participate in a limited but essential manner (larger union executive boards and members of the legislative body present during proposal exchange and the evening of the second day of bargaining); agreement to limit proposals to no more than 5 each and provide rationale at the Exchange of Proposals, smaller teams (3-5) are possible because of role for extended teams; agreement to transparent exchange of information and joint data collection; and professional negotiators lead data gathering and compilation and support open dialogue by committee members.

Interested employee organizations and employers should contact Director Conley at [email protected] or 518-457-2690 to discuss the FIN process and its appropriateness for given bargaining relationships.

Another example of PERB’s efforts “… to promote harmonious and cooperative relationships between government and its employees” is the Labor-Management Committee (LMC) Program. 

The Office of Conciliation offers assistance to employers and employee organizations interested in establishing, or evaluating existing, labor-management committees. The labor-management committee is intended to provide a nonadversarial forum for discussion of problems that might develop into disputes. Once a determination is made to grant assistance, a professional staff or a per diem panel member is assigned to act as a facilitator for the Committee.

For additional information concerning the LMC program, contact Director William Conley at [email protected] or by phone at 518-457-2690.