Workplace Mediation Working Group – Momentum for Mediation
Workplace Mediation Working Group – Momentum for Mediation
The CMC Workplace Mediation Working Group held their first meeting with new Chair Dionne Dury. The meeting unveiled ambitious objectives for 2024, spanning promotion of mediation, collaboration with key stakeholders, and a focus on the impact of integrated mediation in workplace dynamics.
Highlights include an upcoming article in the UK Mediation Journal and a session at the UK Workplace Mediation Conference. The group discussed projects such as Paul Latreille’s training for managers in conflict resolution skills and Victoria Speed’s work on the role of AI in mediation. Exciting times ahead for the evolving landscape of workplace mediation and conflict resolution!
REPORT BY DIONNE DURY
A New Year and a new Chair of the CMC Workplace & Employment Mediation Working Group, introducing Dionne Dury, who has been an active member of the group since 2015. Dionne is an Employment Lawyer and accredited workplace mediator. She has run a successful mediation practice in Bristol, and is now Module Leader for Employment Law at the University of East Anglia, their Director of Equality and Diversity and undertakes pro bono mediation work for the University’s Law Clinic. Dionne is excited to now be leading the Group, with the first meeting of 2024 taking place on 10 January.
Key objectives and aims for 2024 are promotion of mediation, collaboration with key stakeholders, the impact of integrated mediation on workplace/employment/peer mediation.
Dionne has written an article on integrated mediation and its impact on the resolution of workplace and employment disputes, to appear in the UK Mediation Journal.
The CMC are running a session at the UK Workplace Mediation Conference on 5 March 2024, hosted by Iconic Media Solutions.
The CMC are also planning a series of podcasts, the first being about the barriers to mediation and how to overcome them.
Paul Latreille, Professor of Management & Director of Strategic Education projects at the University of Sheffield, is currently working with the University of Westminster, to provide training on conflict resolution skills for first Line Managers. This is showing a shift in conflict management styles to avoidance of conflict, and a more collaborative and facilitative approach to conflict resolution.
The group will be running mediation surgeries. The surgeries are available to everyone, including non-mediators, with themed topic areas. The first will be on 27 February 2024. It will cover the different types of mediation available in the workplace and employment arena. Subsequent surgeries will focus on workplace mediation in April, employment mediation in June and judicial mediation in September.
Victoria Speed, Deputy Chair of the ELA Pro Bono Committee, has been in discussions with tech companies about the role that AI tools can play in the mediation field and the group agreed that a working group should be set up on this very topical area, to keep abreast of changes and keep informed about ways that we, as mediators, can use AI in our practices.
Regional Employment Judge Benjimin Burgher, Head of the ADR Committee for the Tribunals of England and Wales, Employment Judge and Judicial mediator has joined the ADR Roundtable. The next roundtable meeting is on 15th March 2024 and will be a hybrid meeting, with updates from the CIPD, ACAS and MOJ about what is happening in their sectors.
The group noted some key dates for their diaries to include the UK Workplace Mediation Conference on 5 March 2024, the CMC Networking event on 14 March 2024 and the annual CMC Conference on 6 and 7 November 2024.
The next CMC Workplace and Employment group meeting will take place on 13th March 11.30 – 13.00pm.
