Formal employment claims are public, slow, adversarial and binary — and by the time one is lodged, the working relationship is usually beyond saving. Mediation belongs upstream of all that: before the grievance is formalised, before positions are drafted, while the people involved still have something to protect other than a case.
What Mediates, and What Must Not
Suitable: a reporting line that has broken down between a manager and a team member; conflict between colleagues or departments that is quietly costing output and morale; disputes about roles and workload after a reorganisation; grievance-adjacent situations where a formal process has started but nobody actually wants what it produces; conflict inside professional practices and partnerships; and disputes involving senior people where a formal process would be publicly destabilising. Not suitable, and this matters: allegations that must be investigated cannot be mediated — serious misconduct, safeguarding concerns, matters engaging legal duties of investigation, and any situation where one party genuinely fears the other. Those need a process with findings, and any mediator who takes them on is doing everyone a disservice. The sorting happens candidly at first contact. One further boundary: where the employment relationship is genuinely ending, that is exit territory — terms, waivers and the independent advice that must accompany them belong with settlementagreementsolicitor.ie, not a mediation room.
Neutrality When One Side Pays
Workplace mediation carries an asymmetry commercial mediation does not: one party usually pays and usually holds more power. Pretending otherwise guarantees failure, so it is designed for. The mediator is appointed jointly — proposed to both, accepted by both, with the agreement to mediate signed by both, setting out neutrality, confidentiality and how fees are borne (commonly by the employer, which is workable provided the terms are explicit and understood). The employee is always encouraged to take their own advice, and to take it before signing anything. And confidentiality is spelled out in advance: the Act protects communications from later proceedings, and the agreement should state what may be recorded, what may reach a personnel file, and what happens to notes — ordinarily the agreed way forward is documented and nothing else is. What emerges is usually short and practical rather than financial: how communication will work, reporting arrangements, specific behaviours that change, what is put behind both parties, what happens if it does not hold, and a review point in a few months. The full page is here.
The success test is unglamorous: six months later, are these people working together adequately, and did anyone need a formal process? A great many workplace disputes are entirely capable of that outcome and end up at hearings only because nobody made the room available in time.
A working relationship coming apart? 01 5827148 — including the honest answer where investigation, not mediation, is what is needed.
Richard O’Shea — Solicitor & Mediator
Solicitor at Mary Molloy Solicitors (established 1981), holder of the Law Society of Ireland Diploma in Mediation and a TEP of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. Mediations are conducted at The Ormond Building on Ormond Quay, at the firm’s Kilkenny office, at neutral venues, at the parties’ own premises — or fully online. Fees are agreed in writing with all parties before any mediation begins. 01 5827148 · richardoshea@marymolloysolicitors.com · LinkedIn
General information, not legal advice. The content of this website is general information about mediation and Irish law. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor—client relationship. Every dispute 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, and does not decide the dispute. All parties are encouraged to take independent legal advice, and in particular to take advice before signing any mediation settlement. The firm does not act as mediator in any dispute in which it acts, or has acted, for a party — conflicts are checked before any appointment is accepted. Where the firm is instructed as solicitor for one party in a mediation, it acts for that party alone and does not act as mediator in that dispute.
Fees. Fees for mediation are agreed in writing with all parties 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 a dispute or its resolution has tax consequences — succession, business transfers, property, compensation payments — those questions belong with your accountant or tax adviser and with Revenue’s own guidance, and are best addressed before any settlement is signed.