• The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills clears up uncertainty and educates delegates on Government initiatives for improving workplace dispute resolution and mediation.
• National mediation conference with speakers from UK Government, CIPD, BT, Boyes Turner and The TCM Group enjoys great success and a big round of applause.
On 19th of January 2012, The TCM Group in partnership with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted a Briefing Seminar on the Government’s response to the ‘Resolving workplace disputes’ consultation. The response states that mediation should become a preferred mechanism for organisations to resolve disputes without the need to go to court.
The prestigious event attracted a large number of HR professionals, journalists and bloggers from all over the UK, curious to find out more specific details about the Governments’ response to the consultation, which includes a pilot mediation network scheme for SMEs in Manchester and Cambridge. The latest media buzz about mediation helped set the record breaking attendance, following two popular articles in the Independent newspaper and Working Mums online magazine.
The impressive array of keynote speakers, including Gail Davis from BIS, talked passionately about mediation and how it has the potential to revolutionise the way workplace disputes are handled by cutting out the lawyers, the tribunals and the courts.
Mediation is a process of dispute resolution during which the parties, with the help of a neutral mediator, work together to secure a constructive and lasting solution to a conflict or dispute.
Mediation is voluntary and confidential. The mediator encourages the parties to share their concerns in a non-blaming manner. Mediators facilitate open and honest dialogue at a time when communication has often broken down. They promote empathy and understanding between the parties and as a result the parties are able to resolve their own differences without need for a solution to be imposed.
Most speakers focused on last year’s number of employment tribunal claims and impressed the delegates by demonstrating the amount of money, time and business focus they can save if mediation was embedded in their alternative dispute resolution strategies.
Caroline Waters, Director of People and Policy at BT, commented:
“All the speakers were amazing, the delegates were engaging and the room was buzzing with excitement. This was an outstanding event and I am really looking forward to The TCM Group’s next one.”
Presentations slides are available for download below:
Resolving workplace disputes – Gail Davis, Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS)
Reforming workplace dispute resolution: a CIPD perspective – Mike Emmott, CIPD
Resolving employment disputes – Michael Farrier and Helen Goss, Boyes Turner
Mediation: a common sense approach to dispute resolution – David Liddle, The TCM Group
.jpg){kind=small}
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at
Employment Law Review instigated by the Coalition. On the 30th of November the Coalition Government announced one of the most radical shake-ups of employment law in twenty years. The announcements have received far reaching media coverage, however the government’s increased focus on mediation has gone broadly unmentioned.
