The dissertation is devoted to the issues of determining the features and types of conflicts in labor relations, analyzing the concept, types and principles of mediation as a form of alternative resolution of individual labor disputes, the historical prerequisites for the emergence of mediation in foreign and domestic aspects, the place of mediation in the system of alternative ways of resolving individual labor disputes, the study of foreign experience in the application of mediation, as well as legal prerequisites for the introduction of mediation and ways of its adaptation for the settlement of individual labor disputes in Ukraine.
Thus, within the scope of this scientific study, individual and collective labor disputes were analyzed in detail, in particular, an interpretation was given to these categories, their signs and types were determined. Therefore, we believe that an individual labor dispute should be considered as a legal conflict that takes place between an employee (potential, current or former) and an employer regarding the conclusion, execution and termination of an employment contract, compliance with the norms of labor legislation and the requirements of local normative legal acts of the enterprise , institutions or organizations. In turn, a collective labor dispute is a set of unresolved disagreements of the parties to collective relations regarding the establishment and change of socio-economic working conditions, conducting collective negotiations, concluding, changing and implementing collective labor agreements and collective agreements, as well as disagreements concerning economic, social and cultural interests of employees that arose at different levels between social partners. Both individual and collective labor disputes are characterized by special features and are classified according to differentiated approaches. It is proposed to divide labor disputes according to the following criteria: 1) depending on the subject matter (disputes arising from the application and implementation of labor legislation; disputes arising from the very reasons for changing working conditions; disputes arising from compensation for moral and material damage) ; 2) depending on the procedure for resolving disputes (those resolved in court and out of court); 3) depending on the driving force behind the emergence of a labor dispute (labor disputes about rights, labor disputes about interests); 4) by subjects that are directly involved in conflict relations (individual and collective labor disputes).
The author analyzed in detail alternative ways of resolving disputes. It is noted that the legal category "alternative method of dispute resolution" has not found its normative consolidation within the limits of national legislation. Having studied both national and international approaches to the analysis of this category, it was proposed to understand these methods of dispute resolution as extrajurisdictional forms of legal conflict resolution, which represent a set of means by which conflicts between the parties are eliminated, the dispute is resolved through reconciliation with the involvement of a third independent mediator, money and time costs are minimized, as well as negative consequences for the participants in the conflict. Sources of alternative methods of dispute settlement were defined as external forms of consolidation of the legal norm, which provide the latter with an objective expression, and therefore the flexibility of its practical application. Normative sources were proposed to be classified into national and international.
Of course, special attention was paid in this work to mediation as an alternative form of dispute resolution. Within the framework of the procedure for the settlement of individual labor disputes, mediation is proposed to be interpreted as an out-of-court form of solving an individual labor dispute in which an independent third party (mediator) helps conflicting parties to find a consensus through a flexible procedure – negotiations that take place with the mutual consent of the parties, taking into account the principles of voluntariness, neutrality, independence and impartiality of the mediator, self-determination and equality of rights of the parties. Within the framework of this study, a comparative analysis was conducted with other alternative methods of dispute resolution, in particular, with negotiations, arbitration and arbitration, and it was also determined how mediation correlates with dispute settlement with the participation of a judge. It is proved that although the settlement of a dispute with the participation of a judge, which is often called "judicial mediation" in the literature, is not such, and although mediation and settlement have common features, they are completely different procedures and it is inappropriate to identify or consider settlement as a subtype of mediation.
