Labour dispute prevention and resolution

Access to labour justice is within the ILO’s mandate to promote social justice. It is essential for advancing decent work, fostering good governance and achieving Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goals 5 (gender equality), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 10 (reduced inequalities), and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). Access to labour justice involves both procedural and substantive justice, to enabling workers and employers to fully exercise their rights and have their interests acknowledged. It is crucial for realizing labour rights and the effective implementation of international labour standards.

ILO's work to advance access to labour justice for all involves providing technical assistance to strengthen judicial and non-judicial institutions, thereby enhancing the overall effectiveness of labour dispute prevention and resolution systems. It also aims to support and improve bipartite processes, grievance-handling mechanisms and access to remedies – considering the cross-border dimensions of labour dispute prevention and resolution. Additionally, the ILO provides training and capacity building support for judges, labour administrations, conciliators, mediators and arbitrators, as well as the social partners, in dealing with individual and collective disputes. Comparative research on national laws and practice is undertaken to support to this work.

Together with the ILO’s International Training Centre in Turin, regular trainings are provided in various languages on aspects of labour dispute prevention and resolution, including on:

• Designing and managing digital case management system
• Building effective labour-dispute prevention and resolution systems
• International labour standards for judges, lawyers and legal educators
• IR toolkit
• Conciliation/mediation of labour disputes
• Self-paced course on conciliation/mediation of labour disputes
• Certification course on conciliation/mediation of labour disputes
• Tools for the prevention and management of labour disputes in the workplace
• Managing employment disputes effectively in international organizations

For more information or to reach out to our team and global network of experts, please contact the ILO’s Social Dialogue, Labour Relations and Governance of Work Branch (LABGOV) at [email protected].