A new Labour Relations Agency Arbitration Scheme will provide a voluntary alternative to an employment tribunal.
The scheme results from a key recommendation emerging from the Department for Employment and Learning’s public consultation on systems for resolving disputes in the workplace.
The scheme will facilitate the hearing of grievances but without the attendant formality and expense of the legal process.
The scheme is designed to be quicker, non-adversarial, less stressful and more likely to preserve employment relationships than a tribunal process and arbitrators are now empowered to deal with a wide range of employment rights issues.
Launching the scheme Employment and Learning Minister Dr Stephen Farry said: “If we are to compete in a global arena, we need to have flexible and responsive employment relations systems and I believe that the new arbitration scheme will enhance our capability to address workplace disputes effectively.”
Arbitration offers a non-adversarial alternative to a legal process before an industrial tribunal or the Fair Employment Tribunal. To access the new scheme, parties to a dispute voluntarily agree that an independent arbitrator will review evidence provided by both sides and reach a legally binding and enforceable decision.
Arbitration is an entirely ‘opt-in’, voluntary process; however, when both parties agree to go to arbitration, they waive their rights to have their case subsequently reconsidered by an employment tribunal.
Where the parties enter into arbitration, the Labour Relations Agency will appoint an arbitrator to hear the case. The arbitrator will be from a panel of arbitrators who are appointed by the LRA but are independent of it, and are acknowledged experts in employment relations issues.