EFFECTIVENESS OF MEDIATION PROCEDINGS IN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of settling individual employment disputes out of court by means of application of the mediation procedure; the author reveals the essence of the work of mediators and the role of a mediator in settling employment disputes. The main purpose of the law on mediation is to lessen the burden imposed on courts and to settle disputes at the pre-trial stage, but judicial practice analysis shows that the parties resort to mediation in employment relations only after the court proceedings commencement. The author carries out a comparative analysis of the practice of employment disputes resolution in court and out of court both in the Russian Federation and abroad. In the process of research the author reveals shortcomings of both the court proceedings employed to resolve disputes and the law on mediation, and raises problems that need discussion. As the main conclusion to this article, the author concludes that conciliation procedures in employment law as compared with other branches of law are regulated at the law-making level and the enactment of The Law on Mediation had no impact on the provisions of the Labor Code that govern the process of resolving individual employment disputes.