Labor Relations Mediator (Associate Mediator Public Employment)

Duties Description Associate Mediators participate in the resolution of actual or potential areas of impasse and/or dispute between public and private employers and employee organizations. They mediate contract disputes arising between employers and unions; administer a program of intervention in these disputes; facilitate joint labor-management committees; participate in planning and execution of training seminars for panel members, government officials, union representatives, and the public; and participate in the agency's overall information program for constituent groups and the public.

Work Performed:

Determines and directs when and where sessions should be arranged among the principals in labor disputes and utilizes skills to mediate a resolution of the differences.

Tests the reasonableness, equity, and acceptability of the parties’ proposals through joint and separate meetings with them.

Offers suggestions, proposals, and alternate solutions to the parties to remove barriers to settlement.

Assimilates appropriate information, data, priorities, and offers; determines when to transmit these to one or both parties.

Drafts memoranda of agreements, addenda, and letters of understanding. Performs special investigations and studies and prepares related reports.

Mediates and may arbitrate the interpretation and applicability of the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, or the propriety of disciplinary action taken thereunder.

May be required to prepare reports regarding the status of a mediation case, and to make recommendations regarding whether different or further conciliation assistance is warranted.

Participates in the planning and execution of training seminars for panel members, constituent groups and the public.

Meets with Management, Labor Organizations, and interested public groups to explain, interpret, and teach various facets of negotiations, grievance handling, and costing contract language.

Responds to inquiries from clientele, the press, and the public on matters related to the Taylor Law, impasse procedures, fact finding, and interest arbitration.

Represents the agency at public information programs providing information on the Taylor Law and, particularly, impasse procedures and other procedures utilized by the Conciliation Office in delivery of services.

Assists in the training of per diem panel members by participating in such programs and workshops.

May perform the full range of supervisory duties.

Minimum Qualifications This title is part of the New York Hiring for Emergency Limited Placement Statewide Program (NY HELPS). To be considered for appointment through NY HELPS, candidates must meet the open-competitive minimum qualifications for this position. It is expected that employees hired under NY HELPS will have their non-competitive employment status converted to competitive status in the future, without having to compete in an examination. Employees will then be afforded the same rights and privileges of competitive class employees of New York State. While serving permanently in a NY HELPS title, employees may take part in any promotion examination for which they are qualified.

Open Competitive minimum qualifications: Associate degree and: 1. either eight years of experience during which you were primarily (over 50%) involved as a direct and active participant or neutral in collective bargaining negotiations, mediation, and/or arbitration of labor- management contracts, or as a direct or active representative of labor or management in the settlement of grievances or disputes over contractual terms and conditions of employment; or 2. eight years of regular and active service* as a member of an ad hoc or per diem panel of labor neutrals responsible for mediation, fact-finding, and/or arbitration of disputes involving collective bargaining between labor and management; or 3. a satisfactory combination of the experience described in “1” and “2” above which totals eight years.

Substitution: A bachelor's degree may substitute for two years of the required experience; a master's degree in industrial and labor relations or the equivalent, or a law degree, may be substituted for one year of the required experience; a PH. D. in industrial and labor relations or the equivalent may be substituted for two years of the required experience.

*Regular and active service as a member of an ad hoc or per diem panel requires that the individual has been assigned to and performed service in a substantial number of collective bargaining disputes.