It is a well recognized fact that disputes in the workplace can not only be extremely disruptive to productivity but can also carry the risk that a business whether it be a public company, private company, government enterprise, not-for-profit entity or sole trader can suffer long lasting damage to its reputation if a serious dispute is not settled in what is seen to be a fair and equitable manner. Disputes in the workplace can arise from a variety of different circumstances including the following:
- Bullying Incidents
- Sexual Harassment
- Harassment
- Unfair Dismissal
- OH&S Matters
- Working Conditions
- Salaries and Wages Negotiations
The team at ADR Partners are sure that when you consider this list you will recognise a case that has been in the public domain in Australia over the last several years. In particular, there may be a dispute that you recall that has cost a business, its senior executives or the general public loss either in a monetary sense or in a reputational sense or both.
ADR and in particular mediation is an ideal process to help solve disputes arising from circumstances such as those set-out above. One of the attractions about mediation is that the process is a confidential and private one to the extent that no-one need know the outcome other than the parties concerned. This can be most important in workplace disputes and is an additional benefit to those others already known such as the potential speed of resolution leading to a lower cost plus the flexibility of self determined solutions.
The team at ADR Partners are well experienced in matters of workplace disputes and consider that the use of external resources to resolve disputes is a far superior alternative to internal resources provided by some organizations since such resources are mostly seen as coming to the "table" with a perceived bias towards the organization.
