Amidst all the hullabaloo over the government’s plans to reform employment law, one issue that hasn’t got as much of an airing as it might deserve is over mediation/conciliation. In the Law Society Gazette yesterday an article stated that the government intends to promote mediation in the workplace.
Apparently less than 50% of employer respondents to the government’s recent “Resolving Workplace Disputes” had used mediation to resolve disputes, which is a number I find surprisingly high in fact. The more interesting question though is at what stage did they use it? I would guess that for many businesses mediation is only used when the lawyers suggest it as a means of settling a dispute and avoiding a trial.