REPRESENTATION OF THE EMPLOYER BY THE EMPLOYEE AUTHORIZED BY THE EMPLOYER IN PREREQUISITE MEDIATION IN EMPLOYER – EMPLOYEE DISPUTES

Although the principle is for the parties to attend the mediation negotiations in person, the parties can also participate in the negotiations through their lawyers to whom they have given special authority. However, a special and exceptional clause has been included in the Article 3/18 of the Labor Courts Law regarding the representation of the parties in prerequisite mediation. Accordingly, in employee-employer disputes subject to prerequisite medi- ation, an employee authorized by the employer with a written document may represent the employer in the medi- ation negotiations and sign the final minute. The purpose of this clause is to provide convenience to employers who may encounter a large number of mediation requests. In order for the clause to be enforced, the dispute must be an employee-employer dispute subject to prerequisite mediation, and the employer must authorize the employee with a common or official written document. The term employee here is to be understood as an insured and dependent employee of the employer. The employee representing the employer will be the direct representative of the employer and the employee’s actions will have effects and consequences for the employer. As a rule, the employee of the employer is authorized to take any action during the mediation process. However, since it is mentioned in LCL article 3/18 that the employee representing the employer can only sign the final minute, according to the lex lata, the employee will not be able to sign the agreement document to be drawn at the end of the process unless the employee is specifically authorized. It would be appropriate to explicitly give this authority to the employee with a prospective law amendment.