It is the responsibility of the parties to submit requests for arbitration in accordance with the memorandum of agreement as well as the pertinent collective agreement. It is not the responsibility of the Office to poll the parties to ensure proper notice has been given to all concerned that a particular grievance has been filed.

When filing a request for arbitration, be it ex parte or jointly, the party filing the request must "on the same date" transmit a copy of such request to the other party to the grievance.

Under the law of arbitration in Canada other unions whose interest may be affected by a jurisdictional or other claim are generally entitled to notice of proceedings whose outcome may affect their rights. It is not the responsibility of this Office to protect the parties in respect of possible difficulties of natural justice, adjournments and/or jurisdictional review of decisions. Therefore, all requests for arbitration of grievances dealing with such issues as work ownership or union dues should include reference to the interests of other bargaining agents and, where applicable, be copied to them. The Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration is also to be advised of the interest of a third party in order that proper notice of the scheduling of the arbitration may be sent to all parties.

Preliminary objections concerning the arbitrability of a dispute should be filed as soon as possible after the dispute is submitted to the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration. The objection must be in writing, outlining the reasons for the objection. A copy of the objection is also to be filed with the other party to the dispute at the same time and in the same manner.

If a request for the hearing of a preliminary objection is made after the grievance is filed in the Office and before the matter has been scheduled for hearing, the hearing shall be solely to deal with the preliminary objection. However, if a preliminary objection is filed after a dispute has been scheduled for hearing, the hearing shall be for the purpose of dealing with both the preliminary objection and the merits of the grievance.

In all but the most extraordinary of circumstances, postponements or adjournments will not be granted except with the agreement of both parties to a dispute. All requests for postponements should be made in writing, with a copy sent to the other party to the dispute.

As a general principle, all disputes filed with the CROA are scheduled on a "first-in first-out" basis. An exception to this are disputes involving termination of employment which have a priority in scheduling. As well, given the number of cases which can be on file with the CROA at any given time, the scheduling of cases is also done on the basis of equitable distribution among the member organizations, and also among the various parts of each organization.

The parties to a dispute can mutually agree to request that the order of scheduling of their cases be other than the order in which they were submitted. They can also mutually request the substitution of already scheduled cases with other cases. Approval of such substitution will be dependent on available hearing time as the current method of scheduling involves a certain amount of "double booking" of time slots due to the present high level of "no shows".

When legal counsel is to be used, advice is to be given to the other party to the dispute and the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration as soon as possible. When notice of intent is received by both the CROA and the other party before the case has been scheduled, thus giving at least one month's notice, requests for adjournments by one party to retain and instruct legal counsel will not be granted, absent exceptional circumstances.

The word language refers only to Canada's two official languages.

It was agreed by the Administrative Committee of the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration that most members are national in scope. They have, therefore, the resources to deal with arbitration hearings in either and/or both languages. As a result, it was decided that it would be unnecessary to incur the cost of obtaining professional translation services.

While the language of an arbitration hearing is the choice of the two parties to the dispute, there are some rules which the Administrative Committee has agreed are to be followed.

When submitting a request for arbitration, the request and accompanying Statement of Issue (when such is required pursuant to clause 4 of the memorandum of agreement) are to be submitted in the language in which the parties have mutually agreed the arbitration will be heard. The award will normally be issued in that language.

Should the agreed upon language be changed, by mutual consent, after submission of the request to this Office, a translation of the previous request is to be provided to the Office prior to the hearing.

When one party anticipates that a potential witness, or witnesses, will give evidence on its behalf in the other language, that party will notify the other as soon as possible after the hearing dates is set, but no later than 48 hours prior to the hearing. For example, if the dispute is to be heard in French and a witness will testify in English, the party calling the witness will so inform the other party.

Inasmuch as the arbitrator sits as a neutral third party at an arbitration hearing, and is not a party to the dispute, it is not appropriate for either party to expect him, or her, to provide translation services.

Any party requiring audio-visual equipment at a hearing is responsible for advising the General Secretary that such equipment will be required and for providing their own equipment. Should assistance be required in this matter, the General Secretary will arrange to have such equipment made available with the cost of renting such equipment to borne by the requesting party.