Resolving R.O.W.S in Nottingham

Sorting out workplace disputes is supposed to be a serious business. But I couldn’t resists a fit of the schoolboy giggles when ACAS told me it was coming to Nottingham for a conference.
The event, you see, is about a procedure known as dispute resolution, a way of overcoming conflicts in the workplace without things reaching an expensive crisis point.
Putting to one side, for a moment, the fact that ACAS has been suffering a little local difficulty in its own workplace (staff threatened a pay strike), I wondered what advice they might have for a rather large organisation based right here in Nottingham.
It’s a multi-million pound body with thousands of employees that, broadly speaking, manages to keep a complex show on the road pretty well.
Unfortunately, two prominent members of its team have been engaged in what the industrial relations dictionary might characterise as a series of Routine Operational Workplace Situations (or R.O.W.S, for short).
So I asked Ed Sweeney, national chairman of ACAS, what his advice might be to the two team members involved. (Names are sensitive in disputes, so we’ll just refer to them as ‘Jon’ and ‘Michael’).
What I wondered, would he say when senior people in an organisation had a very public falling out?
“Come and talk to ACAS, it’s as simple as that. We’ve got a lot of experience in helping individuals deal with issues.”
But what if it keeps happening, I asked, as the R.O.W between ‘Jon’ and ‘Michael’ is not the only one to have happened at this organisation in the last few years.
“In that case the organisation needs to have a look at its processes and procedures,” said Ed. “Is there a problem with the culture and the way they deal with each other?”
Only 'Jon and 'Michael' can answer that.
But the good news is that ACAS has just been given a big hike in funding by the Government to enhance its dispute resolution advice line, so people like ‘Jon and ‘Michael’ can call and get confidential advice.
So I’d suggest one or the other calls this number: 08457 47 47 47. The way I see it, it’s that or a telephone number-sized pay-off.