Employers now have a real alternative for settling grievance and disciplinary disputes with employees quickly and before they reach a tribunal. This new approach will avoid management time costs and substantial legal bills, while helping preserve good working relationships.
The City Disputes Panel, a provider of alternative dispute resolution services, has devised a comprehensive dispute resolution service. The service is launched against a background of Employment Tribunals receiving over 100,000 cases a year, and the report of the Employment Tribunal System Taskforce recommendation that schemes promoting mediation within organisations and pilot schemes in alternative disputes resolution should be made available to employers and employees in addition to the service provided by ACAS.
CDP's Employment Support Service brings all the benefits of alternative dispute resolution to HR teams and other managers to help resolve workplace grievances. Karl Davies, chief executive of CDP says: Feedback from our members showed that there was a clear need for an alternative forum to resolve employment disputes at the earliest opportunity. We have assembled a panel of experienced professionals who can offer conciliation, mediation and evaluation and so seek to prevent a problem escalating to a tribunal.
This new service from CDP will be highly flexible and offer a tailor-made solution to suit each situation. It can be built into employment procedures or used on an ad-hoc basis. The CDP can meet a wide rage of needs from an evaluative appeal panel to a single facilitator to resolve a grievance informally when it first develops.
The CDP service includes guideline wording for inclusion in employment terms and advice on choosing the most appropriate process. The CDP's panel of professionals includes HR practitioners, trained mediators, employment lawyers and members with experience of sitting on tribunals. The panellists, who are all independent and impartial, are chosen for their ability to assist in resolving disputes.
Davies added: Workplace disputes cannot always be avoided but too often employees feel that internal appeal procedures lack an element of independence and their only option is an employment tribunal. This is often distressing for all those involved and can harm both personal and commercial reputations. Demonstrating that every care has been taken underpins corporate best practice and can be an important recruitment consideration.
Employment disputes - a new approach
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