Here we are, September already. How did that happen?

Only two certainties lay ahead – first, that there will be Christmas stuff in the shops by the end of the month and second, that the abolition of Tribunal fees will be turning many employees thoughts to claims they might not have made before. By all accounts it will be a busy run-up to the festive season for Employment Tribunal staff.

There is nothing we can do to help you with the cost, distraction and stress of Christmas, but here is something to address the other certainty. We are proud to be the only lawyers speaking at the Civil Mediation Council’s Conference in Solihull on 19 October, Save Money, Save Time, Save Stress. With a panel of professionals experienced in workplace dispute resolution, this session will show you how your business can use mediation as a robust and pro-active part of your internal grievance mechanisms. We will cover how to sell mediation to your management and staff alike, avoiding the pitfalls of over- or under-promising in relation to it and (our piece) how even unsuccessful mediations can still be of great benefit to your management of the workplace disputes which otherwise, like the Sales, may be everywhere by the New Year.

Whether you are a mediation sceptic willing to learn a bit more or already a convert in principle but unsure how to implement it in your workforce in practice, this is the conference for you.

Please do come along – the feedback from when this conference was run in London earlier in the year was fantastic and if you reach a mediated settlement to just one claim which would otherwise have gone to Tribunal, you have recouped the attendance cost many many times over.