Comment on Government measures to simplify the dispute resolution system

The Government will today announce up to 37 million to prevent work place disputes unnecessarily going to employment tribunals. The measures are part of package designed to simplify the dispute resolution system, saving business and employees over 175m a year. The changes complement provisions in the Employment Bill currently before MPs.

Jonathan Warne, partner at law firm Nabarro, comments: ìDisputes, in one form or another, are inevitable. It is therefore important to have an effective risk management policy in place to protect your organisation and employees. This should include clear, practical dispute management procedures, and comprehensive training for employees. Not only should this help to minimise the risk of disputes arising, but it should also provide a framework for dealing with them when they do occur. By feeding the lessons learnt back into your risk management policy, the time and costs involved in settling a dispute can be minimised. It is worrying that so many organisations seem to simply rely on having a policy in place with the implementation and training ñ so vital to success ñ potentially overlooked.î

Recent research by Nabarro found clear scope for organisations to improve their risk management procedures. Whilst risk management has taken off as a discipline in recent years with the majority (78%) of companies now having a risk management policy in place, the research reveals that only one third of these policies cover dispute resolution. This is despite the fact that commercial disputes cost UK PLC an estimated 33 billion each year.

Key findings include:

- Nearly two thirds of organisations donít educate staff on dispute avoidance
- 30% of companies donít learn from previous disputes
- Over half (58%) of senior managers are concerned about the impact a dispute will have on employee morale
- 21% of disputes are with employees

For a copy of the report or more information then please contact Corrie Stirling-Aird on 020 7566 9719.