Employment & Workplace Mediation

Antony’s background as a leading Employment law barrister has caused him to be much sought after as a mediator for all sorts of Employment and Workplace mediations. He is happy to act as a sole mediator or to co-mediate with Helen or others.

Sendall Mediation has a particular interest in Workplace mediations and we are happy to undertake workplace mediations either on a case by case basis or to assist businesses to establish workplace mediation as part of its internal procedures.

The distinction between Workplace and Employment mediations is that in Workplace mediations the employee or employees involved are still employed by the employer. As a result, they usually follow a rather different format from Employment mediations, where the employment relationship has usually come to an end and the ex-employee is claiming against the former employer. Workplace mediations tend to follow a model that is more similar to a community mediation model and Employment mediations are much more similar to a Civil/Commercial mediation model (see below.)

In Workplace mediations, the mediator is usually commissioned by the company to mediate between individuals who remain in employment. The process will normally involve an initial meeting with the person responsible for commissioning the mediation on behalf of the employer (usually an HR professional or manager), followed by separate initial meetings with the parties in dispute. If the parties in dispute are willing to have a joint meeting with the mediator(s), such a meeting will be arranged at which the main work of the mediation process is undertaken. The joint meeting may take place at the workplace, but is often held at a neutral venue in order to assist with keeping matters confidential and to provide a more comfortable and stress/distraction free environment. If an agreement is reached the outcome will be confidential to the parties and will only be communicated to the person commissioning the mediation if the parties agree. However, it should be noted that the very nature of the terms of the agreement between the parties may make it essential to communicate the outcome to other persons within the business in order to give them practical effect. If required, follow up meetings can be made in order to ensure that the agreed outcome is working.

There are many different potential scenarios where Workplace mediation is appropriate:

1. Discrimination
2. Victimisation
3. Bullying
4. Perceived differences in treatment or pay
5. Other conflicts over perceived poor behaviour
6. Issues of capability
7. Disputes about changes to working practices - especially following transfers of undertakings or business reorganisations
8. ‘Turf wars’ between departments or teams over entitlement to use limited funding or physical resources
9. Agreeing appropriate and sensible terms for a mutually agreed termination of the relationship.

In Workplace mediations the mediator works with the parties involved to seek to resolve their differences in a way that will allow their relationship to continue and to be improved. The success rates for Workplace mediation are extremely high with successful outcomes being reported in over 80% of all cases. The benefits to a business of introducing Workplace mediation into their processes are manifold and include:

1. Cost savings in terms of management and HR time
2. Significantly reduced legal bills
3. Quicker and more effective resolution of disputes
4. Lower levels of conflict within the organisation as a whole
5. Improved staff morale
6. Improved productivity
7. Improved staff retention
8. Improved relations with suppliers and customers

The business case for Workplace mediation is extremely compelling - see Antony’s article published in the UK mediation Journal on this topic which can be downloaded here: The Unassailable Case for Workplace Mediation.

Civil & Commercial Mediation

Antony undertakes a very wide range of Civil and Commercial mediations and has experience in the following areas:

• Employment disputes of all kinds where the employment relationship has ended including, bullying, discrimination and victimisation claims of all sorts, dismissals, whistleblowing claims, terms and conditions disputes and redundancies
• Commercial contract claims in all sorts of business sectors (wholesale/retail, manufacturing and service industries of all sorts) varying in value between a few thousands of pounds up to multi-million pound disputes
• Numerous restrictive covenants/confidential information disputes
• Partnership disputes
• Sports disputes, including disputes between sporting organisations and between individual sportsmen and sportswomen
• Business tenancy disputes
• Education disputes, including mediations between universities and their academic staff or students and between schools and staff and between teachers and parents
• Neighbour disputes, including boundary disputes, nuisance and trespass claims and violent feuds between neighbours where the reference to mediation has emanated from the Police, a local authority, a housing association or landlord
• Inter-generational disputes between family members, including disputed wills, disputes over the ownership/running of family businesses and other family feuds

Antony adopts a very proactive approach to Civil/Commercial mediation and is always happy to have pre-meetings or telephone discussions with parties separately before the day of the mediation. He works very hard to produce effective resolutions to the issues that face the parties. He regards his approach as more ‘omni-partial’ than impartial, in the sense that he is actively working on behalf of every party rather than seeking to remain completely neutral and impartial.
As with workplace mediation, Antony and Helen are prepared to act as co-mediators, if desired.

Community Mediation

Helen and Antony both make a very large commitment to Community mediation and each gives up to 20 days of their time per year to pro bono community mediations. These take many forms, including numerous neighbour disputes of one kind or another (boundaries, fences, trees, noise, light pollution, anti-social behaviour) and some inter-generational disputes and disputes involving schools or local authorities.

Community mediation has given both Antony and Helen invaluable experience of co-mediation and of the community mediation model. This model entails pre-meetings with the parties as a matter of course and joint meetings that rarely involve separate meetings or ‘shuttle diplomacy’. In the great majority of cases joint meetings will entail all of the parties sitting around the same table working collaboratively to resolve their differences. The skills acquired from pursuing this model have a wide application both in Workplace and Civil/Commercial mediation.

Lecturing & Mediation Training

Antony already lectures widely on the subject of mediation and is happy to provide or to participate in training programmes, particularly in connection with the introduction of Workplace mediation processes in companies. Helen is also able to assist in the design and delivery of such training programmes.