Guidance Portal

This portal provides public access to, and information on, any guidance documents issued by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Guidance documents are defined as an agency statement of general applicability, intended to have future effect on the behavior of regulated parties, that sets forth a policy on a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue, or an interpretation of a statute or regulation and is not otherwise required by statute to satisfy the rulemaking procedures specified in 5 U.S.C. 553 or 5 U.S.C. 556.  A guidance document does not include: rules exempt from rulemaking requirements under 5 U.S.C. 553(a); rules of agency organization, procedure, or practice; agency statements of specific applicability, including advisory or legal opinions directed to particular parties about circumstance-specific questions (e.g., case or investigatory letters responding to complaints, warning letters), notices regarding particular locations or facilities (e.g., guidance pertaining to the use, operation, or control of a government facility or property), and correspondence with individual persons or entities (e.g., congressional correspondence), except documents ostensibly directed to a particular party but designed to guide the conduct of the broader regulated public;  agency statements that do not set forth a policy on a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue or an interpretation of a statute or regulation, including speeches and individual presentations, editorials, media interviews, press materials, or congressional testimony that do not set forth for the first time a new regulatory policy; grant solicitations and awards; contract solicitations and awards; or purely internal agency policies or guidance directed solely to Service employees or contractors or to other Federal agencies that are not intended to have substantial future effect on the behavior of regulated parties. See FMCS’s rule on guidance documents for additional exemptions.

Guidance documents lack the force and effect of law, except as authorized by law or as incorporated into a contract.

Guidance documents not posted on the guidance portal are rescinded, and neither the FMCS nor a party may cite, use, or rely on any guidance document that is not posted on the guidance portal, except to establish historical facts.

FMCS Guidance Documents

Note: FMCS currently does not have any guidance documents. Any guidance documents issued will be posted here.

• • Contact the FMCS regarding guidance documents via guidancedocuments@fmcs.gov
    • Email guidancedocuments@fmcs.gov to submit requests for issuance, reconsideration, modification, or rescission of guidance documents in accordance with § 1473.11;.
    • Email guidancedocuments@fmcs.gov to submit a complaint that the FMCS is not following the requirements of OMB’s Good Guidance Bulletin, or that the FMCS is improperly treating a guidance document as a binding requirement.
  • FMCS regulations regarding guidance documents will be linked in the Federal Register as soon as final.