Workplace Mediation in the UK: Deconstructing the narrative of success
1. Introduction 1.1. A Personal Preamble As a Trade Union official, the members I represent often ask: What’s the point of this mediation I’m being pushed into? W hy should I agree to attend? How is this going to help me achieve the justice I deserve? Following discussion of what can be expected in terms of process, I’m open about my own involvement with mediation – about my own belief in the value of the mediation process and the fact that I am a mediation proponent. Increasingly, it’s that reference to belief that gives me pause. I speak of belief – as though mediation were a matter of faith . Mediation will help, we are told. But how do we know that it will? Where is the evidence - and what does it tell us? From the members I represent - people who are very often angry, distressed, unhappy – those are very fair questions to ask. So I am open with the members I advise, disclosing my own ‘prejudice’: that despite...