Legislation-lite? Is mediation the answer to the burden of legislation?

According to HR Legal Tracker 2010 survey, ‘over half of respondents (55%) believe that simplifying employment law must be top of the agenda for the next government; with a further 35% calling for Government to restore the balance of employment legislation in favour of the employer’, while law firm Dickinson Dees found that 73% of HR professionals in the UK believe that employment is excessively regulated. The law firm says “Legislation has become increasingly complicated and ambiguous for employers. There comes a point when the added benefit is questionable and must be outweighed by the burden which it places on business. New employment legislation is estimated to have added £70bn to costs for businesses over the last decade. Of those [employers] that had settled an employment claim against them, almost 70% of HR professionals cited cost as the main reason for settlement and over 90% stating cost or time as the contributing factors towards settlement of a claim.’

Mediation is a hugely cost-effective technique for responding to and resolving employment complaints, from behavioural issues which could result in grievance or disciplinary processes, through to managing redundancies and exit packages. The serious costs involved in working with lawyers and managing formal processes should be kept for those cases which absolutely cannot be managed through mediation. All other cases should go to mediation first. A bill from CMP for a typical mediation would be around £2000, and, with a 95 per cent success rate, would result in employers saving considerable sums of money.