Resolving Workplace Disputes

The boss says one thing.

The employee says another.

Someone gets fired.

In thousands of labor-management disputes every year, a neutral third party steps in to resolve an impasse through arbitration – usually more time efficient and less expensive than legal action.

Step by practical step, co-authors Rocco Scanza and Jay Grenig outline this historically significant form of conflict resolution in "Fundamentals of Labor Arbitration."

It was published this summer by the American Arbitration Association and ILR's Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution.

Scanza is executive director of the institute. Grenig is a professor at the Marquette University Law School and an instructor at the Scheinman Institute.

The American Arbitration Association is the oldest and most respected provider of alternative dispute resolution services in the world, Scanza said.

In addition to labor-management conflicts, cases handled by the not-for-profit organization include commercial, construction, employment, insurance, international and claims program disputes.

More than 113,000 cases were filed in 2009 with the American Arbitration Association, which has 29 offices in the United States, Mexico and Singapore.

The book -- first in a series -- will serve as a primer for practitioners, labor and management professionals, and new arbitrators, Scanza said.

A guide to the grievance arbitration process, with references to statutory and case law principles that helped shape labor arbitration, it is the successor to the American Arbitration Association’s "Labor Arbitration: What You Need to Know."

A "Fundamentals of Labor Arbitration" book-signing event will be held Dec. 16 in the American Arbitration Association's Manhattan headquarters.

More information about the book is available by contacting the institute at ilrcr@cornell.edu.