8.2 How to deal with disputes and complaints

Complaints policy and procedure
Internal complaints and mechanisms
External complaints
Nine principles of dispute resolution
Skills needed for dispute resolution

Complaints policy and procedure

All community organisations need a written complaints policy and procedure for their members and staff. This should cover:

internal complaints made by an employee, member or director about another
external complaints made against the organisation or its employees

It should state that:

any complaint will be taken seriously and respectfully
all parties in the complaint will be given a full and fair hearing
there is a procedure to deal with complaints
an independent person or mediator can be called in if needed
the complaint will be confidential

Internal complaints and mechanisms

Ways that some organisations avoid internal disputes include:

training and briefing of governing body members—this involves training in conflict of interest, roles and responsibilities of directors, who can make decisions about money, etc
using a strategic plan to keep the governing body focused on decision-making as a way of reducing conflict
using traditional authority to help in resolving disputes

The dispute resolution procedures usually follow a logical progression:

Internal Complaints Mechanism

The dispute must be fully documented at every step.

If the dispute involves the CEO, the chairperson is responsible.

External mediators may consist of a committee of elders, an Indigenous ethics committee, or linking into local community courts.

If you are a corporation registered with the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006, you can ask the Registrar to intervene to resolve disputes. See www.oric.gov.au

External complaints

While all organisations see external complaints as negative, they can be a means to improving processes and services. The complaints procedures usually follow a logical progression:

External complaints

Nine principles of dispute resolution

Conflict is natural and can have positive outcomes if properly managed.
Indigenous people have the right to:

agree—or not—to the processes and outcomes;
full access to the relevant information;
manage their decisions and disputes.
Indigenous decision making and dispute management processes are complex and should not be rushed.
Processes should not be harmful. For example, they should not make a conflict worse, entrench people into antagonistic positions, or marginalise people who have been wrongfully excluded from a process.
The way agreements are negotiated will affect their success: decisions must be ‘owned’ by Indigenous parties.
Quick fix solutions should be avoided if they don’t lead to long-term resolution.
One size does not fit all. Processes should:

fit in with local needs and ideas of how authority works and decisions made;
reflect Indigenous values and law;
recognise that some Indigenous disputes may not be resolvable;
build local capacity to fix their own problems.
Early intervention and prompt responses can reduce conflict.
People who are acting as mediators or negotiators should be objective and free from bias—they should not take sides, and they should act fairly.

adapted from Toni Bauman 2006, ‘Final Report of the Indigenous Facilitation and Mediation Project', AIATSIS

Skills needed for dispute resolution

All governing bodies or management committees involved in dispute resolution should have relevant skills and information, or have access to them. Such skills include:

Good dispute resolution