The Manpower Consultative Services Program (MCS), has operated at the federal level since 1963. Formerly reporting to the Department of Labour, the MCS provided a forum for employers and workers confronting the uncertainties of technological and economic change. When the Commission assumed responsibility for the Service in 1966, its mandate remained unchanged: to help organizations cope with human resource matters, issues, or problems thus minimizing employment disruptions necessitated by business restructuring.
The Service offered both business and labour a practical and cooperative approach to resolving workplace adjustment issues and quickly developed a proven track record of helping individuals affected by plant closuress, threatened lay offs, technological change, and other labour market issues. It provided for a voluntary establishment of Joint Consultative Committees comprising both employees and employers to confront mutual problems and propose workable solutions. The Program helped put into place an agreement, which would, in part, establish a Committee, which would be composed of equal employer/worker representation to confront the large numbers of specific or general problems such as human resource planning, new technology introduction, sluggish productivity, and relocation. The program usually applied in circumstances involving plant closures, technological change, high labour turnover, and worker transfer and was available to businesses, communities, and non-profit organizations.
When lay offs or a complete plant closure were unavoidable, however, the MCS could minimize the economic disruption for both employers and affected workers by offering job search seminars, employment referrals, and even retraining assistance. Because of this expertise, the MCS was eventually given responsibility with EIC for the Special Industry and Labour Adjustment Program (SILAP) as well as coordination authority for the UI Work Sharing Program. In 1984, the new government renamed the Service the Industry Labour Adjustment Program (ILAP) administered by an Industrial Adjustment Service (IAS) component, but its essential functions remained unaltered.
This accession consists of project case files from the 7485 file block of the Department's 7000 Central Registry File Series. The case files contain documentation that support the MCS Program, such as: an agreement, an agreement evaluation, reports submitted by the Manpower Adjustment Committees, correspondence and memoranda. The files document cases from across the country.
