Center for Mediation, Free Essay Sample

Disputes are part of our daily lives and it is hard to do away with them. What we always do is get resolutions out of every dispute. The resolutions could come from litigation in the court of law or by alternative dispute resolution methods.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

In this first situation, alternative dispute resolution method would best suit in trying to find a resolution. The dispute before hand was not of great magnitude that could warrant the attention of the court, in as much as the woman who had fallen down, with the help of her husband, wanted to sue the Good Grocers. The produce manager came out of his office and saw a woman lying on the floor of the produce department and almost immediately her husband started yelling at him claiming that a banana peel had made her wife to slip and fall.

Mediation would be most appropriate in this case. Mediation is a non binding dispute solving process which gives the parties disputing the power to abandon the process whenever they feel like. The two parties that are involved control the process and the mediator is not a decision maker but just a helper to the parties in their attempt to find a solution. It is a confidential procedure which is aimed at encouraging the participants to be open in making their submissions.

The first stage is submission of the dispute by both parties so that mediation can take place. The woman that fell down should agree to make her submission as well as the produce manager. The next step will see one of the individuals send a request to the Center for Mediation. The request will have a detailed summary outlining the dispute, a copy of the meditation agreement, names and communication references of the disputing parties. In the next stage, a mediator is appointed. If the parties disputing have not agreed on a mediator yet, then the center for mediation will appoint one that both parties will be confident to work with. The remuneration fee of the mediator is also agreed upon before the actual mediation can commence. The next stage is for the appointed mediator to work with the disputing parties. The mediator should establish some rules that will be followed in the process. The mediator will have a series of discussions with the disputing parties. Depending on the simplicity of the above dispute the mediation process with the involvement of a mediator may last even a single day. It is not always a guarantee that mediation will work but disputing parties should be able to consider available options that better serve their interests than any other options.

Following the above steps, it can be seen that mediation process will be the easiest way of finding a solution for the first scenario. The produce manager could try to convince the woman and her husband that it is not the banana peel that made her to fall. Rather it is her high heels as she could have just tripped, like any other person could trip, and fell down. A ribbed rubber mat has a very good grip and provides a good safety measure to protect people from slipping. Even though, there was a banana peel on the floor, it was not automatic that it was the cause of the woman slipping. The produce manager acted swiftly and called 911 as per the requirements of safety and health laws. This was an act of benefit of doubt because the woman appeared not to have sustained any injury.

The husband of the woman was very outrageous claiming that they would sue the produce manager just because the woman was an anchorwoman with the NEWSNOW. Suing the produce manager will be uncalled for as he had already taken responsibility and furthermore, the case was too little to be taken to court. The woman when well convinced will come to agreement with the produce manager hence settling the dispute.

It can be seen that mediation is most suitable to solve the dispute because of its simplicity nature that saves on time and costs.

Scenario 2

From the facts given, we can comfortably say that Ms. Greene is an independent contractor and not a part time employee as she claims. She is an independent contractor with her own bakery business. She is contracted by Good Grocers to be decorating their cakes between 6 to 9 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. She is paid by the number of cakes that she decorates which emphasizes the fact that she is an independent contractor.

Ms. Greene should therefore, not receive the same benefits that the part time employees enjoy. As much as she worked 8 hours on Saturday and another 8 hours on Sunday, still she does not qualify to be treated a s a part time employee. It was very clear that she had only been called up by the bank manager to make up for the shortage of workers on the Mothers day weekend. You cannot be considered as a part time employee when all you did was work on one weekend. Furthermore, she was paid 15 dollars ($) per hour for her helping hand and should not claim any other benefits.

Works Cited

Maxwell, J. P. (1997). Conflict management and mediation training: A vehicle for community empowerment? Conflict Resolution Quarterly. doi:10.1002/crq.3900150203

Domenici, K., & Littlejohn, S. W. (2001). Mediation: Empowerment in conflict management. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.