MODEL FOR MEDIATION - A tool to achieve equal opportunities on the labour market

MODEL FOR MEDIATION - A tool to achieve equal opportunities on the labour market: a new international project by Zveza svobodnih sindikatov Slovenije (ZSSS) co-financed by the European Commission.

 

On August 2008 the European Commission has sent us a contract on co financing the project "Model for mediation - a tool to achieve equal opportunities on the labour marker" to sign. The eleven month duration of the project has begun on the 1st September 2008. Trade union partners of the project come from various European countries; United Kingdom, Austria and Croatia.

 

There are few main aims of this project: exchange of cases of good practices on the field of solving the work place related conflicts with the help of mediation; constructing the network of competent mediators throughout the regional offices of the ZSSS; improving the way of helping victims of discrimination; implementing a new trade union mediation tool kit, which aim is a normalization of the relations between the victim of the discrimination and the employer / co-worker / management.

 

Other aims of the project are also to provide a definition of a mediation procedure on a company level; identification of a set of possible solutions for individual cases through the use of mediation procedure; structural guidelines for the training and educational field.

 

The foundation of the project is a research, set by a multidisciplinary team of experts. Basics tool for showing the current situation on the field of solving the work related conflicts will be a set of group interview with different focus group (employee, management, shop stewards) in seven Slovenian companies.

 

Part of the project is also the construction and implementation of a web page mediacija.zsss.si, in which trade union members and potential victims of discrimination will be able to get all information on recognizing and preventing the work-place discrimination, mediation procedure, cases of good practices in states of the project partners, and all the actual information about the project. Web page will be in action on the end of November 2008.

 

We hope that this project will mean the begging of a new service for trade union members and of course even more efficient and faster help in the cases of work related conflicts.

 

 

 

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

 

17. 8. 2009

 

Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, has successfully implemented the international project "Model for mediation - a tool for achieving equal opportunities on the labour market", which was approved in 2008 and financially supported by the European Commission.

The project is an initiative of the Committee on Equal Opportunities of the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia. This advisory body of the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia on the area of equal opportunities has found that workers are often looking help with preventing many hardships and disputes arising from the unequal opportunities and discrimination in the workplace with specialized non-governmental organizations, because they want to resolve the conflict without escalation. This was a clear sign, that it is necessary to offer trade union membership professional services to resolve labour disputes in a peaceful way. With this project Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia is also implementing resolution of the 5th Congress of Trade Unions Trade Unions Plan for Gender 2007 - 2011, where it is said: "Trade unions, which comprise the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, are announcing workers and employees that we are Labour Organization, which will pursue the principle of equal opportunities for all categories of employees on the labour market as well as in their own trade unions. We work so that each worker or the worker shall be guaranteed equal access to education, occupation, employment and career advancement, and to social protection. Special care will be given to the most vulnerable categories of workers. "

The eleven month project has included three foreign trade union organizations, namely from the United Kingdom, Austria and Croatia, which have  contributed to quality realization of the project with their examples of good practice and participation in the main conference, held in May and at a practical workshop designed to develop educational materials, conducted in June.

Project objectives include the exchange of good practices in the field of conflict resolution in the workplace through mediation, a network of mediators throughout the regional offices of the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia regional organizations, improving help to victims of discrimination and the establishment of the new trade union tools for a mediation process aimed at normalization of relations between the victim of discrimination and the employer or colleagues. Project objectives include also defining the very process of mediation at enterprise level, identification of possible solutions for individual cases through the process of mediation and structured guidance to the field of training and education. The cornerstone of the project represents a survey of multidisciplinary research team of experts, which was carried out on the basis of group interviews (focus groups) with workers and individual interviews with senior personnel and trade union representative in the five Slovenian companies.

The project has established a new website mediacija.zsss.si, where union members and the potential victims of discrimination can find the necessary information on identifying and preventing discrimination on the workplace, the mediation process, positive practices in partner countries and topical issues of project work. The project has also brought produced guidelines on mediation to resolve workplace disputes in a peaceful way and the first manual on mediation training for shop stewards for equal opportunities.

We hope at the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia that on the basis of this project we will set up a new service for our members and in particular, faster and more efficient help in cases of conflict in the workplace.