Workplace Mediation
We have experience of workplace disputes as a legal representative of employees bringing Employment Tribunal claims against their existing employer, as a colleague chosen as support in internal meetings by an employee facing dismissal, and as an employee involved in both internal and tribunal proceedings with an employer.
We are also ourselves an employer with the potential to find ourselves embroiled in such disputes in that capacity.
The majority of the Employment Tribunal cases that we have conducted as solicitors have involved employees who remained in the employment of the Respondent after the tribunal hearing.
If an employment dispute is not about termination of employment, or if it is and the Claimant is seeking re-instatement or re-engagement, then mediation has much to commend it over tribunal proceedings and even in some cases internal complaints procedures.
The continuing employment relationship (or the possibility of its being re-instated) is highly likely to be damaged by adversarial tribunal proceedings, or by internal proceedings where the employee and (if they are available) his or her union rep are confronted by senior management and members of the human resources department. The employee feels stressed, and may well take periods of sick leave. The organisation loses the employee’s productivity, and must also divert management time and spend money on legal fees.
There may also be collateral damage to morale of employees not involved in the dispute, who may decide to leave the organisation if they sympathise with the plight of their fellow employee, and perceive in their treatment a culture of unfairness or abuse in the organisation.
Once a dispute reaches an employment tribunal, the option of conciliation is made available through ACAS, and judicial mediation (by an employment judge) may be offered to the parties as well. The dispute will have entered the public arena, however, and much of the damage outlined above may already have been done. Workplace mediation offers the opportunity to nip the dispute in the bud before it grows into a major drain on the individual’s health and the organisation’s resources.
Our Principal, Peter Webster, is qualified to mediate workplace disputes. Please contact us if you wish to explore mediation as an option.
