EMPLOYEE/EMPLOYER MEDIATION – Avoid costly litigation

Guardian HR has experienced employment attorneys that can provide on-site mediation services. We deal with employer/employee issues every day and have an intimate understanding of the competing interests at stake. Sometimes in business disputes arise between employees and employers and too often these disputes are resolved either through costly court trials or complex arbitration when there was a quicker and less economically and emotionally painful alternative, mediation. As an employment attorney and President of Guardian HR, I have seen the scenario played out more times than I care to count. Employee notifies employer of a problem such as claimed harassment or discrimination and management either dismisses the complaint out of hand or after a quick investigation reaches a conclusion that the accusation(s) is or are not justified and closes the book on the matter. The employer continues to see signs that the employee is dissatisfied and performance falls off, leading to a reprimand, back and forth recriminations and eventually a termination. Next thing the employer knows they receive a Representation Letter from an attorney on behalf of the disgruntled employee, in which they recite a litany of facts supporting a slew of claims from harassment to hostile work environment and more and closing with some astronomical demand for settlement. Mediation can often take the steam out of just such a situation and thereby prevent a mole hill from becoming a mountain. It has been my experience that most employee/employer disputes are not cut and dry and rarely stem from a single instance. Rather, they are a complex web of communication breakdowns, management indifference and workplace and personal upheaval, combining into an boiling caldron of emotions, which if left unresolved can explode into an all-out legal war of attrition costing enormous time and money and drag on employee morale. Generally, both sides, the employee and employer want much of the same things: a. Opportunity to have their concerns heard by the other b. Mutual respect c. Closure Mediation can achieve all three and at a fraction of the emotional and financial pain of going to court of complex arbitration. Mediation does not have the formalities of either court or arbitration, can be done at the employer’s facility and generally takes a few hours. Commonly, the participants and mediator all meet together at the outset and the mediator explains the process. Next the mediator will ask the employee and the employee’s representative if present to come into a private location and discuss the matter. That will be followed by the employer doing the same and the process continues until the mediator has been able to bridge the differences and find some middle ground solution acceptable to all sides. The ability to meet alone with each side and not disclose the totality of those discussions with the other party gives a mediatory great flexibility and the parties a sense of security and confidence knowing they can be open without risking disclosure or embarrassment.