The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is a Canadian government agency under the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada Department. An agency is a department of a local or national government responsible for the oversight and administration of a specific function, such as a customs agency or a space agency. ... The Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, also referred to as Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for providing Canadians with the resources and skills needed for the workplace and their community. ...

The agency is responsible for providing dispute resolution and dispute prevention assistance to trade unions and employers under the jurisdiction of the Canada Labour Code. The FMCS provides conciliation and mediation assistance to parties engaged in collective bargaining and offers an extensive range of preventive mediation and grievance mediation services aimed at resolving differences and improving industrial relations during the closed period of a collective agreement. Dispute resolution is the process of resolving disputes between parties and includes lawsuits (litigation), arbitration, mediation, conciliation, and many types of negotiation. ... See also: Assist (sports) ASSIST (the Assembler System for Student Instruction and Systems Teaching) is an IBM System/370-compatible assembler and interpreter developed in the 1970s at Penn State University by John Mashey. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a group of workers who act collectively to address common issues. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... Conciliation is an alternative dispute resolution process whereby the parties to a dispute (including future interest disputes) agree to utilize the services of a conciliator, who then meets with the parties separately in an attempt to resolve their differences. ... Mediation in broad sense is an act of bringing two states, sides or parties closer or together. ... Collective bargaining is the process of negotiation between trade unions (or labor unions, as they are called in the USA) and employers (represented by management) in respect of the terms and conditions of employment of employees, such as wages, hours, working conditions and grievance procedures, and about the rights and... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... A grievance is a formal statement of complaint, generally against an authority figure. ...

External link:

• Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service website (http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/asp/gateway.asp?hr=en/lp/fmcs/11Federal_Mediation_and_Conciliation_Service.shtml&hs=mxm)