The Conciliation Step of the Unfair Dismissal Process in South Australia

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is attracting increasing attention in the United States as a means of allowing both unionized and nonunionized employees to discuss their grievances in the presence of outside third parties. Public interest groups have looked for mechanisms to accomplish this objective. For some time, South Australia has used a dispute resolution system that provides both mediation and arbitration for individual workers. As good as this system is in overall intent, it falls short of putting people back on their jobs or providing adequate compensation in cases of unfair dismissal. This paper discusses the operation of the mediation step in the unfair-dismissal process of South Australia.