Services

Appointment as neutral mediator, conflict assessment and triage — and the policy that gives managers a third option.

Three Distinct Instructions

1. As Mediator

Accepted by both sides. Neutral: acting for nobody, advising nobody, making no findings and reporting nothing on the merits — regardless of who pays the fee.

2. Assessment & Triage

Mediate, investigate, grievance, or something else? For an employer holding a complaint it cannot categorise, often the most valuable half hour available.

3. Scheme & Policy Design

A workable mediation step written into your dignity at work policy, grievance procedure or handbook — so the option exists before anyone needs it.

The rule governing all three is absolute: never neutral and adviser in the same matter. The firm does not mediate where it acts or has acted for a party, and does not act for a party in a matter it is mediating — which is why the conflicts check runs at first contact, before any substantive conversation about the situation itself.

Where Workplace Mediation Earns Its Place

Workplace Mediation in Ireland

The hub: what it is, how it differs from investigation, where it fits alongside grievance procedures.

Bullying & Dignity at Work

Informal resolution first under the Code of Practice - and the complaints that must be investigated instead.

Manager & Employee Breakdown

The most common workplace mediation there is, and the one most often left too late.

Team & Interdepartmental Conflict

Multi-party design where the conflict is between groups rather than two named people.

Grievance & Disciplinary Alternatives

What mediation can replace, what it can pause, and what it must never displace.

Mediation Before the WRC

What is still available before a complaint is lodged - and after.

Return to Work & Reintegration

After absence, suspension or an investigation - making the return actually hold.

Senior Executive & Board Conflict

Where a formal process would be publicly destabilising.

Professional Practices

Conflict inside firms where clients notice and the profession talks.

Public Sector & Semi-State

Dignity at Work policies and established procedures in a proceduralised environment.

When Mediation Is Not Appropriate

The honest exclusions: investigation, safety, protected disclosures, and genuine fear.

How a Workplace Mediation Works

First call to written agreement, and the review point that tests whether it held.

Two Free Tools

Mediate or Investigate? walks the sorting questions that decide which process a situation actually needs — and flags plainly where the answer is “neither, this needs something else”. The Escalation Stage Check shows what is still available at the point you have reached, from informal concern through to a lodged WRC complaint. Both run entirely on your device; nothing is stored or sent.

Which Instruction Fits?

Send the situation in ten lines, everyone involved and the employer entity for the conflicts check. The sorting answer comes first - and it is sometimes 'not a mediation'.

Call 01 5827148

Services - FAQs

Three distinct things. APPOINTMENT AS MEDIATOR: accepted by both sides to run a workplace mediation - neutral, advising nobody, making no findings, and drafting the written agreement if one is reached. CONFLICT ASSESSMENT AND TRIAGE: a scoping conversation, sometimes a short piece of written advice, on whether a situation should be mediated, investigated, dealt with under a grievance or disciplinary procedure, or handled some other way entirely - which for an employer facing a complaint it does not know how to categorise is often the single most valuable half hour available. SCHEME AND POLICY DESIGN: building a workable mediation step into a dignity at work policy, grievance procedure or employee handbook, so that the option exists before anyone needs it. The first two are never provided to opposing parties in the same matter.

General information, not legal advice. This website contains general information about workplace mediation and Irish law. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor—client relationship. Every workplace situation turns on its own facts, and advice on yours requires a consultation.

The mediator is not your legal adviser. Where Mary Molloy Solicitors is appointed as mediator, the mediator is neutral: the mediator acts for no party, advises no party, makes no findings and decides nothing. This is so regardless of which party is paying the fee. All participants are encouraged to take independent legal advice, and in particular to take advice before signing any agreement reached in mediation. Employees may wish to seek advice from their own solicitor or trade union. The firm does not act as mediator in any matter in which it acts, or has acted, for a party — conflicts are checked before any appointment is accepted.

Mediation is not a substitute for a required process. Some matters must be investigated rather than mediated, including allegations of serious misconduct, matters engaging health and safety duties, and protected disclosures. Nothing on this site suggests that mediation should displace an employer’s statutory obligations, a grievance or disciplinary procedure where one is required, or a complainant’s entitlement to have a complaint formally investigated or to bring proceedings.

Fees. Fees for mediation are agreed in writing before the mediation begins, and fees for legal services are agreed in writing with the client at the outset. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.

Tax. Nothing on this website is tax advice. Where any payment or arrangement has tax consequences, those questions belong with your accountant or tax adviser and with Revenue’s own guidance, and are best addressed before anything is signed.