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(BLUEFIELD)– Employment arbitration has witnessed significant change over the past 20 years, and the trends in arbitration provide invaluable insight in developing an effective arbitration system in the future, noted Dr. Steve Bourne.
The Bluefield State College Professor of Business, who is also an experienced labor arbitrator, was a featured presenter during the recent "International Conference on Industry, Engineering, and Management Systems" in Cocoa Beach, FL.Dr. Bourne's paper, "Employment Arbitration: Present Status and Future Directions," focused upon the growing use of employment arbitration in nonunion settings. "While many people associate arbitration with a unionized workplace, many nonunion employers today require employees to sign an employment agreement stipulating that all employment disputes must be submitted to arbitration," he explained.
During his presentation, Dr. Bourne reviewed the evolution of employment arbitration over the past 20 years, as well as recent court decisions affecting employer utilization of employment arbitration, and he recommended procedural guidelines for implementing an effective, legally defensible employment arbitration system. His recommendations included the identification of goals, determination of measurement criteria, simplicity of language, and utilization of the American Arbitration Association or other nationally recognized arbitration entities. Noting that recent employment arbitration trends have witnessed a shifting of fees that now often saddle employees with excessive costs, he also recommended that employees pay only a filing fee to enter the arbitration process. His paper is under consideration for full publication in the conference proceedings. More than 150 business and engineering professionals and engineering practitioners attended the conference, which provided an outstanding forum for interacting with individuals from a wide range of university and business settings, according to the BSC faculty member.
Dr. Bourne, who was selected for inclusion in Who's Who Among America's Teachers 2002, teaches a "Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations" course at BSC each fall semester.
April 10, 2003
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