Most Irish workplace policies instruct managers to attempt informal resolution first, and then say nothing whatsoever about how. So the informal stage becomes a conversation nobody is equipped to have, and the real choice collapses back to the familiar two: do nothing, or go formal.
Replace, Pause, or Never Touch
Mediation does not replace a grievance procedure — it can resolve a matter so that a grievance need not be pursued, which is a different thing. An employee keeps the right to raise a formal grievance and have it heard and answered; that right is not removed by an offer of mediation, and an employer treating mediation as a precondition, or as a way of deflecting a complaint, has misread its position badly. What it properly offers is a genuine alternative that many employees prefer once they understand it. A grievance already lodged can usually be paused by agreement — and three things should be recorded in writing rather than left informal: that it is paused, not withdrawn; that policy time limits are suspended or extended for the duration so nobody loses a step by trying; and that if mediation does not resolve matters, the grievance resumes at the stage it had reached. Employers who leave that vague create bigger problems, because an employee whose complaint quietly evaporated during an informal process now has a considerably larger complaint. Disciplinary processes are generally not mediable at all. They consider whether conduct warrants sanction and carry procedural fairness requirements — notice of the allegation, a proper opportunity to respond, the right to representation, an unbiased decision-maker, a right of appeal — reflected in the Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures. Those protections exist for the employee’s benefit and cannot be informally traded away.
The Empty Informal Stage — and the Dates That Do Not Pause
Both relevant Codes leave room for informal resolution: the Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures contemplates that issues may be resolvable informally before formal steps engage, and the Code on the Prevention and Resolution of Bullying at Work is built around a staged approach starting there. The gap is in implementation: policies say informal resolution should be attempted without saying by whom, how, or what happens to time limits, so managers fall back on the two documented options. Writing a real mediation step into the policy — who can propose it, that it is voluntary for both sides, that declining is not held against anyone, what pauses while it runs, what is recorded, and that it does not displace the right to a formal process — is the cheapest workplace-relations work available, and it is done before anyone needs it. One discipline overrides all of this: statutory time limits for employment claims do not pause for internal processes. Attempting mediation does not extend them, and no employee should lose a claim because they were trying to resolve things sensibly. So the dates get checked at the outset, and where a limit is close the right advice is sometimes to protect the position first and mediate after. Internal policy limits are different and can usually be extended by agreement — in writing. Every participant is encouraged to take their own advice on the dates applying to them.
A Grievance Lodged, or About To Be?
There is usually more room than the policy suggests - but the pause, the time limits and what is recorded need handling properly. Ten lines on the situation, everyone involved and the employer entity.
Call 01 5827148