Looking to the future

Abstract

About 10 per cent of all global framework agreements include a reference to mediation or arbitration procedures. Therefore in 2016 the 105th International Labour Conference commissioned the ILO to assist global union federations and multinational companies in mediation and dispute settlement where appropriate. However, in the existing literature alternative dispute resolution constitutes uncharted territory when discussing mechanisms to strengthen compliance with global framework agreements. This article starts to fill this void, presenting six reasons for the growing necessity to start developing a procedural framework for alternative dispute resolution in global framework agreements. Most importantly, increasingly technical agreements can no longer be enforced through reputational sanctions, while their increasing ‘juridification’ aggravates the risk of external legal disputes. However, most multinational companies and global union federations do not have procedures for alternative dispute resolution and without a comprehensive procedural framework references to mediation or arbitration are unlikely to lead to the resolution of any dispute.