December 8, 2022

Carbert Waite LLP Partner, Roxanne Davis, and current co-chair of the Employment Law practice group, made a recent contribution to the CPHR Alberta Magazine. 

In the article titled “The Rise of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment Law in Alberta” Roxanne discusses the circumstances that have led to the rise of alternative dispute resolution methods in employment law disputes. 

As she explains, there have been significant changes in important institutions such as the Alberta Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the judicial system during the last few years that have encouraged new solutions in employment matters. 

For example, the AHRC has shifted its conciliation approach from diplomatic resolution to face-to-face meetings which resemble a mediation process. 

In court, for instance, the increase in alternative dispute resolution of employment disputes, new additional compliance requirements, and the backlog operations caused by Covid-19 have forced finding new alternatives, including private mediation and arbitration in the court process. 

Roxanne recognizes the value of mediation in employment law conflicts. Even if not all cases are right for mediation, she remarks that employment lawyers report a significant success rate with this practice and bring significant benefits for those parties involved. 

” All parties involved in employment law disputes would be better off if arbitration was as widely used for those cases as it is in labour law,” she concludes. 

The complete article is available at this link.