On 23 April 2018, the Belgian Ministry of Labour, together with a consortium of 12 European research institutes, held a symposium on the current state of the art and best practices for conciliation and mediation in collective labour conflicts within the European Union, and particularly in Belgium. The symposium was organized for two occasions. First, the 50st anniversary of the Belgium law, providing mediation services by the Ministry of Labour to prevent and mediate in collective labour conflicts. Second, the presentation of the results of an EU (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) sponsored project in 12 EU member states.
The management of collective labour conflicts is in all countries regulated differently. The study shows that also practices of third party intervention differ largely. Most countries differentiate conciliation (a relative informal process of facilitated negotiation), mediation (usually defined as a strong involvement of the third party, who gives recommendations to the parties), and arbitration. Mediators typically are not trained, certified or registered as mediators in most countries. In all countries there is a large potential for conciliation, particularly in early stages of conflict (preventive mediation), as well as in rebuilding of trust after conflict episodes. More details in open access book: Mediation in collective labor conflicts (Springer, 2018).

In this contribution the author(s) contend that controlling cooperation is a better appraoch to succesfully meet the mediation paradox (discussed a.o. by De Palo et al. in the European Parliament Rebooting study) and the conflict management paradox, than merely calculating the costs of conflicts. The author(s) discuss the phenomenon of denial gap, and summarize some of the results they achieved with their team spirit barometer in surveys among Austrian managers during the past few years.

In this interview with prominent representatives of the British Acas and the Belgian Social Mediators Service important developments in the ADR labour practice are discussed. In particular, the impact of the financial crisis and the ever advancing globalization process on the labour negotiating climate is the centre of attention.

Providing access to justice is a major challenge for any judicial system. Canada has gone to great lengths to meet this challenge over the past thirty years, in part by developing alternative dispute resolution methods. Unfortunately, results have been mixed. Canadian society is currently preparing to renew its vision of access to justice and the contribution of dispute resolution methods in meeting that challenge. What lessons can we learn from Canada’s experience? What are the new directions and initiatives for access to justice? Our paper suggests that the Canadian experience can make two contributions to the access to justice debate. First, we suggest that the notion is evolving in the legal community from an institutional perspective to a contextual vision of access to justice. Second, we point out an evolution of alternative or appropriate dispute resolution methods toward a participatory justice movement. Our paper proposes a new Canadian perspective on access to justice and dispute resolution methods.

The article introduces the Round Table Mediation& Conflict Management of the German Economy, illustrates its role, member corporations and objectives, gives an insight into its vision and mission and provides an overview both of its organizational structure, functioning and the main topics currently dealt with in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution. The contribution further provides an overview regarding recent developments of commercial mediation and finally assesses the future prospects of corporate conflict management in Germany.

In their contribution ‘Employment and ICMS’, Rob Jagtenberg and Annie de Roo discuss the yields that an integrated conflict management system may bring to individual workers, to the company or organisation, and to society as a whole. Few organisations have adopted ICMS as yet. Therefore, the authors analyse the resistance against introduction of ICMS in some detail, especially resistance on the part of management, which likely will be decisive.Recent developments in the world economy and in politics however, may change the leverage in favour of introducing ICMS still, in the years to come.

In this contribution the focus is on whether mediation, as it is practiced today, can be regarded as a profession and if so, whether it belongs to the ‘new’ or ‘old’ professions. In an attempt to answer this question the structure of the body of knowledge and the predictability of the outcomes of the application of that body of knowledge are discussed.