Workplace mediation
Improve the work climate
Have you noticed that a dispute between employees is poisoning the workplace atmosphere?
Do you want to resolve a disciplinary issue calmly and with mutual respect?
Do you wish to negotiate working conditions and anticipate the emergence of a conflict?
Workplace mediation led by a Chabot professional is a winning solution!
Contact usHere are a few examples of cases in which our mediation professionals have been involved over the years:
- Negotiation, interpretation, and enforcement of employment contracts
- Workplace conflicts (between employees, between manager and employee, between managers)
- Alleged psychological harassment
- Management of disciplinary issues
- Occupational health and safety conflicts
Why choose mediation?
Workplace mediation is a confidential out-of-court dispute resolution process that benefits both employers and employees. It helps maintain harmonious relationships among colleagues and preserve a healthy, positive work environment.
Because collaboration among these stakeholders is essential to business operations, conflict resolution is crucial to organizational prosperity and to the well-being of the individuals without whom that objective could not be achieved.
In addition to allowing the dispute to be explored as a whole, by considering the parties emotions, perceptions, values, and concerns, mediation gives participants flexibility and creativity in developing a solution.
Contact us
Seasoned lawyer-mediators, dedicated to resolving your disputes with attentiveness, respect, and professionalism.
Contact usSeasoned lawyer-mediators, dedicated to resolving your disputes with attentiveness, respect, and professionalism.
Me Jean-François Chabot
Founder, Lawyer, and Accredited Mediator
Expertise : Civil, commercial, workplace, and estate mediation
Seasoned lawyer-mediators, dedicated to resolving your disputes with attentiveness, respect, and professionalism.
Me Bruno-Pierre Allard
Lawyer, CRIA, ECH, Arbitrator, Investigator and Accredited Mediator
Expertise : Labour Law Litigation and Investigations, Arbitration
Mediation process
1. Establishing the mandate
Before the mediator can meet the parties in conflict, they must receive a professional mandate from the employer. The mediator will use this opportunity to explain how the mediation process works, gather context on the dispute, and understand the employer needs and expectations regarding the mediation session.
2. Review of documents
If the employer has documents they consider relevant to resolving the dispute and likely to move discussions forward (for example: a collective agreement, employee contracts, salary scales, or other records), this is the time to share them with the mediator for review.
3. Pre-mediation
Each employee involved may have an individual pre-mediation session with the mediator. The objective is to help the mediator understand all issues surrounding the dispute, such as events that occurred, emotions involved, and each person's expectations, needs, and concerns. This helps the mediator facilitate settlement more effectively.
4. Mediation
During this meeting with all parties and the mediator present, the goal is to review the facts surrounding the dispute, identify the issues to address, and establish a structure for productive discussions. In open, transparent, and respectful exchanges, each participant can express their perspective, concerns, expectations, emotions, and questions. The mediator maintains harmony in discussions and ensures everyone has an opportunity to speak.
At any point, if requested by a party or deemed appropriate by the mediator, a caucus may be held. This allows the mediator to speak privately with one party, while informing the other that a caucus is taking place, to request clarifications or for any other legitimate reason.
Our objective is that, throughout the process, participants leave our offices feeling heard, understood, and acknowledged by one another. This stage may require more than one session depending on the needs and complexity of the situation.
5. Assessment of options and alternatives
Once the dispute issues have been discussed, each participant shares ideas and solution paths. The mediator may intervene to encourage creativity without imposing a solution. The parties then choose the option that best fits their constraints, relevant considerations, and, where applicable, employer requirements.
6. Mediation outcome
a) Written agreement
If the parties reach an agreement by selecting a mutually satisfactory solution, the mediator drafts a clear summary. At this stage, the mediator ensures that the chosen solution respects each person's rights and freedoms, as well as public order. This summary of agreements constitutes a transaction and must be performed in good faith by the parties.
b) No written agreement
If participants do not reach an agreement at the end of mediation, they may choose to initiate legal proceedings. However, they remain free to change course and attempt mediation again later. Keep in mind that information exchanged in mediation remains confidential and cannot be presented in court if legal proceedings are pursued.
In all cases, a report may need to be provided to the employer indicating certain information about how mediation unfolded and the conclusions reached, if the employer was not personally present at the sessions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is psychological harassment?
The Act respecting labor standards defines psychological harassment as “vexatious conduct” manifested by:
- behaviors, words, acts, or gestures;
- that are hostile and unwanted;
- repeated;
- that undermine the dignity or psychological or physical integrity of the employee;
- and that create a harmful work environment for that employee.
A single instance of conduct may be considered harassment if it is serious and has a continuous harmful effect on the employee. The law also requires employers to prevent and put an end to psychological harassment once it is brought to their attention.
More details on organizational mediation
Material, professional, relational, and organizational factors, as well as standards, constraints, and so on, are an integral part of our work environment. These aspects are the conditions that shape our lives and with which we must coexist.
Work is defined as a set of organized, useful human activities aimed at a specific goal. This environment includes actors—including human beings—who possess different characteristics and values and whose interests sometimes diverge. Consequently, interpersonal conflicts are an inevitable aspect of workplace life. While we often view conflict as a risk or a danger, more often than not, it presents an opportunity.
To create this opportunity, we must, first and foremost, demonstrate transparency and respect for the interests of each stakeholder. In a conflict situation, these conditions allow us to see things differently and strengthen relationships. Conversely, when conflict is ignored, it can lead to stress, anxiety, and a deterioration of workplace relationships. Sometimes, these effects spread and can lead to the breakdown of the workplace. At this point, it is normal for people to no longer know how to handle the situation.
The use of mediation can be an effective way to transform conflict into a learning experience and to create opportunities.
What is mediation?
Mediation is a voluntary process for resolving conflicts and/or problems, in which an impartial third party (the mediator) attempts to help the parties reach an agreement to resolve their dispute. In this process, the mediator assists the parties in working together to identify their respective interests, explore options, and find solutions that are acceptable to both. The third party may also serve as a resource for proposing potential solutions and agreements.
Organizational mediation specifically addresses conflicts within a workplace setting, such as between an employer and an employee, between two managers, between two coworkers, between two work teams, and so on.
How does a mediation session work?
To maximize the effectiveness of mediation, sessions are usually held in a neutral setting, and all individuals necessary for decision-making must be present.
During the session, the mediator encourages the parties to discuss the matter in order to identify the underlying interests driving the conflict. The mediator will guide the parties to communicate and, above all, to listen, which will allow each to see beyond their own perspectives and understand the other’s concerns.
The discussion aims to clarify each party’s perceptions, identify needs, find new approaches to better address the conflict, and identify solutions available to both parties.
