Find the conference ” Mediation, the confidence at first ” of January 17th in videos
Communiqué de Presse -Club des médiateurs Colloque du 17 01 13
Les Actes du colloque-17 janvier 2013
« Mediation, confidence at first »
“2002-2012 : The Club of the Mediators of Sevices to the Public,
10 years of mediation on behalf of citizens and consumers
Emmanuel CONSTANS
Président du Club des Médiateurs de services au public
Médiateur des ministères économiques et financiers
Mr. le Defender of the Rights, dear Mr BAUDIS, Chairman and Chief Excécutive of Groupe La Poste, dear Mr. Bailly, ladies and gentlemen advisors of the Social Economic and Environmental Council, colleagues mediators and mediation team members and all dear friends of mediation whom I can qualify so, first of all thank you for coming to this conference in spite of the cold winter in the prestigious place where we meet through the kindness of President DELEVOYE who agreed to come just now to close our works.
We are very happy to welcome you on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Club of the Mediators of services to the public
Ten years, it is the youth. But within ten years, our club changed, just like the changes which knows the mediation, the mediation which is in full development in France today.
The number of our members almost doubled, while remaining limited, because we are first a working Club. We created an association. As support for our activities, we have set up a website that hosts a large number of visitors and therefore knows a great success. We also organize training sessions open to all the mediators and their teams.
Our values did not changed: listening, dialogue, constructive ways to resolve disputes, general proposals to prevent disputes, impartiality, independence. Competence and efficiency remain our key words.
The mediators members of the Club have various backgrounds, reflecting different families of mediation in our country. This diversity is an asset and we value it. Administrative, financial, consumer sector or company mediation : what matters to us is the quality of service provided to consumers citizens. We are all loyal to the same charter and to the respect for the European Directive of 2008 on mediation in civil and commercial matters.
Moreover, we are passionated by the european mediation issues which you know well, Mr The Defender of the Rights , just like as online mediation recently proposed by the European Commission and on which we prepare an initiative of the club.
Our Club is opened to relations with all other actors who develop, often with great faith, the mediation devices :
magistrates, lawyers of the judicial, conventional mediations, the associations as the National Association of the Mediation whose the dynamic President Gabrielle PLANÈS is among us. We wanted to place this anniversary conference under the sign of confidence. Lost confidence, found confidence, rising mistrust, need for confidence.
Our participants and our two Round Tables, which will be led by Marie-Laure AUGRY, mediator of France 3, will debate openly.
The needs for mediation, in the broadest sense, seem increasing everywher in our society. It will be the theme of the first round-table. The theme for the second round-table will deal with how to build real mediations with a shared confidence.
You feel it, we all feel it in our mediations functions or our functions related to mediation, at a time when crises overlap, there are heavy human challenges, even civil peace challenges.
On these issues and before our first round-table, I’ll give the floor to the two personalities that make us honor and friendship to come and participate in this meeting, Dominique BAUDIS and Jean-Paul BAILLY.
Thank you Mr. Defender of the Rights to have agreed to open our conference. You are, if I may say so, the protector of the Club of the Mediators of public services. You accompany us personnally in our collective action and at the level of each of the mediators. Many of your people are actively involved in our work and spare no effort. I would like to mention the role of Xavier BARAT, without whom this conference would not have been possible.
You are, Mr. Defender of the Rights, a constitutional authority at the heart of the rights issues, but I also know the importance you attach to equity. Dear Mr BAUDIS, you have the floor
Dominique BAUDIS
Defender of the Rights
Thank you Mister President for inviting me to this opening session and give me so the opportunity to present an institution which is actually the first one to register in a legal framework and in the mediation field the mediation of the Republic created in the early 70s. The first Ombudsman was Antoine PINAY.
He had numerous successors until Jean-Paul DELEVOYE, who is now Chairman of the Economic, social and Environmental Council, hosting us today. This is an institution that has a long history throughout which governments and public services, that you represent, as well as the private sector, is engaged in mediation process.
Indeed, with regard to the institution I am responsible for, a major reform intervened during the previous years, with the registration in 2008 of the institution in the Constitution under the title of Defender of Rights. On the occasion of this rise in the legal order, the scope of the mission has changed, has expanded considerably with the grouping of four independent administrative authorities. It is the Ombudsman, the oldest of the four, the Ombudsman for Children created in 2000, the National Security Ethics Committee, also created in 2000, the High Authority to Combat Discrimination and for Promotion of Equality which is the most recent.
The four authorities are grouped within a single institution with a very specific organization. However, in our organization,
drawn by the Organic Law during the debate in Parliament, the Ombudsman for the Rights is assisted by deputies on each mission.
I chose women assistants to perform these missions. Let us quote the Ombudsman for Children, Madam Marie DERAIN, the assistant in charge of the Authority to Combat Discrimation, Madam Maryvonne LYAZID, who was the first vice-president of the HALDE (High Authority for the Fight Against Discrimination and for Equality), an assistant in charge of watching over trades security, police, municipal police, customs ethics, Madam Françoise MOTHES and the mission related to relationships between the administrations and public services exercised by a General Delegate, Bernard DREYFUS, who exercised this mission with Jean-paul DELEVOYE.
This is the organization drawn by the legislator with colleges on the issue of children, the security ethics and the fight against discrimination. Naturally, we pursue our mission with the gathering of the teams, those who worked with the Ombudsman : the HALDE (High Authority to Combat Discrimination and Promote Equality), the CNDS (National Security Ethics Committee) and the Defence of Children.
Then, we benefit from a network of 450 regional delegates and is an extremely useful means of action in the context of confidence that is at the heart of your thoughts today. I use the term “benefit” because these women and men are volunteers, about 80% come from public service in all its forms
These are usually young retired people who wish to continue to be socially useful, involved in the service to others and who put their skills and experience to allow access to the law by becoming territorial delegates for the Ombudsman
Thus, it is about 450 persons deployed throughout the territory, metropolitan and overseas departments, that allow the citizens to have a physical and human contact with our institution and not just by mail or by e-mail. Obviously, we wish that the formalities of seizure are as flexible and opened as possible, thus we can be seized by mail or by e-mail, but also by meeting a delegate in one of the numerous offices. There are more than 600 across the territory, in departmental centers dedicated for access to the law, in associative places where the person can come and be respected, heard and listened by somebody who looks at her in the eyes.
You can measure it in the exercise of your missions : our fellow countrymen are often irritated, sometimes even discouraged by mechanisms that increase in number, we have to deal with phone platforms and reach a service only via Internet. Thus, being understood by somebody who is going to answer you is something positive.
Sometimes even, you explain that the administration did not make a mistake, but at least, the explanation will be given. Thus, I attach great importance for this human dimension which gives us our territorial network.
Concerning our means of action, I would say that they are two kinds: the protection of the rights and the promotion of the rights
The protection of the rights is the treatme of files and complaints that we receive. It is the first one of our missions for you, for us. Moreover, the law requires us to answer any court referral, even if it is inequitable. Every person has to receive a letter, not simply a vague standard form, but a letter suited to his situation. We receive approximately 90 000 complaints every year. It corresponds moreover to the addition of the number of complaints which received the four previous institutions. This is the complaints treatment, that I call the protection of the rights
The second way, the second way to intervene for us and to fulfill the mission assigned to us by the legislator, is the promotion of the rights. That is, naturally from the observations we make on the treatment of the complaints, to make so that we can act in a preventive way by ending dysfunctions, attacking the cause which can be a regulation, a ministerial decree, a decree or a badly drafted article of law. It can also be in the wider sphere than the only public sphere : bad behavior that settle down gradually in certain sectors of the society, in the field of the access to the employment or the access to the housing. Thus, a permanent dialogue with the actors of the society will allow to develop equality practises and less discrimination
So we have the power to propose reforms to the government, Parliament, Government, which is recognized by law.
We also have a recognized ability to work with civil society in the field of promotion of the rights
I come back to the claims treatment which is our first mission. The law gives us a range of ways which is extremely wide. It goes from the amicable settlement thanks to the mediation, sometimes even the most informal mediation that is, until a more formalized mediation according the terms of the law or to the intervention, if necessary, in contentious actions. That is to say that the Ombudsman has the ability to make submissions in front of any juridiction, any court, whether civil, criminal or administrative. After investigation, we file submissions to the court, following the request of prosecutors orthe request of a party or on our own initiative if we feel that the situation justifies it.
Obviously, the use of legal action has not substituted for mediation and finding amicable solutions, as well as the intervention as a neutral and impartial trusted third party in a dispute.
Most of the solutions that we find for the 90,000 complaints we receive are made through the use of mutual agreement procedures, mediation procedures so the link with the four authorities is not a setback for mediation. Even, to a certain extent, this is an extension of the field of mediation. Previously, it was conceived in the field of the relationships between citizens and administrations and public services. Today, mediation can intervene for example in the fight against discrimination.
I’ll take an example which is quite new and I think that it speaks for itself. Often, unlike disputes between citizens and public services, discrimination issues end up in the court, because discrimination is a crime that is sanctioned by law. Obviously, tradition and way of behaving of the teams of the HALDE and the High Authority High Authority were to go to the courts to convict the person or company that was guilty of discrimination. We obviously continue in this direction. But sometimes, we introduce a mediation process in such cases.
For example, a few weeks ago, a couple of elderly people, aged about 75 years had been discriminated because of the age by a real estate company that had refused to rent them an apartment simply because the law says that beyond 70 years, when a tenant does not obtain the renew of the lease, the landlord ha to find alternative rehousing. So this protective device for the elderly over 70 years had been perceived by the lessor as a constraint. Therefore, people were excluded because of their age
They seize to court and the Defender of the Rights, a legal procedure is brought in the court. The company, probably on the advice of its Legal Adviser, obviously considering that it would be condemned, wanted to move closer to the people who were discriminated and made it through the Ombudsman for the Rights, asking us to make these people compensation proposals.
We felt that the proposed compensation was adequate, it was around 25 000 euros. The persons considered that, indeed, they felt restored in their rights because the on one who had discriminated acknowledged he had done it and he thus compensated those who were the victims. The affair was settled by an agreement and a transaction in which we presided
It was an advantage for the persons who had seized us, the case was settled within three months while if they were undertaking a legal procedure, once again they were 75 years old, it could last five or six seven years. So they believe that the offense has been repaired and concerning the company, it is freed of this dispute. So in areas that could be disputes domains, we can intervene with a process of mediation or conciliation playing the role of a trusted third party
That is what I wanted to indicate to you so that you measured well that in the new institution of the Ombudsman for the Rights, mediation is no longer confined to the sphere of relations between citizens and public services, but extends to all the missions we exercise. As indeed in the field of relations between citizens and public services, we have recourse to means of contentious when mediation has failed and we are convinced of the citizen’s rights.
That’s what I wanted to tell you by by yielding you obviously all the interest which our institution carries in your works. Our teams are in relation to each other in the treatment of cases, but it is obviously useful that periodically, we all meet to think about the mission that we share. You spoke about protection of civil peace, protection of the social link and what makes the republican pact. This is a great public service, it is ours. Thank you for having invited me.
Emmanuel CONSTANS
Thank you very much, Mr. Ombudsman for the RIGHTS for these words which are really valuable for the continuation of our work. We are also very pleased to welcome Jean-Paul Bailly, Chairman and CEO of La Poste Group and who has long been for a long time friend of the Mediation and of the Mediators Club.
Managing one of the largest French companies, Jean-Paul Bailly is an expert of the change management. Leading change is not easy whether it is on the economic, social or human front. In a country that has reluctance to needed changes, you kindly accept, Mr. The Chairman, for giving us your point of view on this issue of the need for confidence and mediation. We thank you.
Jean-Paul BAILLY
President and CEO of the Group La Poste
Thank you very much. Good morning to everyone of you. I will, of course, greet Dominique BAUDIS, the Ombudsman for the Rights, of Rights and congratulate him for his work and commitment.
I also wanted to greet and to thank Emmanuel CONSTANS, the President of the Club of the Mediators of services to the public and then to greet each of you in particular the mediators, their guests and their teams who are here
I wanted, of course, also thank the organizers of this conference for the opportunity to express myself on the theme of confidence which is, you know, is a key value of the Post. We are going to say that the Post is par excellence the trusted third party, the postmark shall prevail, it is confidentiality, it is an absolutely central value of the Post
We thus created an observatory of confidence which is research and reflection structure and which is intended to try to better understand the constituent levers of the confidence. During this about fifteen minutes, I’ll try to propose an inventory regarding confidence and how, within the framework of the Post Office, we rely on this absolutely central value.
I’ll give you an example right away. For ten years I have been at the head of the Post Office, we made successive strategic plans. The first five-year strategic plan was called “Performance and Convergence.” This meant that the performance of the Post and the convergence of a number of government decisions to help for the development and success of the Post. The second strategic plan was called “Performance and Confidence.” This translates very clearly the virtuous cycle between confidence and performance. This is true for a company, for a child at school for a sports team. The central value of the trust is to me absolutely essential
We follow a barometer of confidence and the 2013 edition has just been released. It’s interesting, because we see that in France, the situation is really paradoxical. On one hand, there is a continuous decline in confidence for the future. We went from 60% in 1982 to 39% of French people who trust in the future. We often read – and this is doubtless true – that we are among the best on the pessimism and despite, there is a very strong self-confidence and confidence in the future, since it is 77%.
There is also a strong need for trust which is strengthened. You speak talk about it in the roundtable talk. It is reinforced by the complexity of our environment, new technologies, loss of marks, humanitarian crises, political crises, crises related to terrorism, etc.. There is a growing uncertainty and anxiety that reinforces this need for trust and at the same time, this occurs in a society where it is rather the suspicion that tends to settle down. The confidence level is very low in our society, because of the economic and financial crisis in particular
The most characteristic is that the confidence in institutions collapses, including institutions that had so far resisted well as the mayors, who were men and women in whom the French people trusted in the past. Mayors have lost 20 trust points since 1982.
There are only a few exceptions to this somewhat pessimistic view that is – and I am happy to greet them, because I know they are many in the room – the consumers’ and generally any proximity associations . In other words, people do not trust institutions, they find that hospital is terrible, but the nurse who takes care of their father is very kind. They find that national education is not going well at all, but the teacher who takes care of their little girl is remarkable. There is a tremendous gap between institutions and trust related to proximity.
What appears in this crisis of confidence is that if it is partially due to irrational fears, it reflects the reality and specificity of our world which are twofolds. On one hand, the future is perceived more as a threat than a progress. This is the first factor for the loss of confidence. The second is a feeling of helplessness that impedes action, it is a kind of fatalism related to the complexity of global problems
I think it is really essential that everyone think about how to create a culture of the confidence, build confidence and maintain this valuable asset especially because one of the other characteristics of the confidence we can measure every day is that it takes years to build and it can be destroyed within a few minutes, either on a personal or institutional level.
First, I would like to testify, because I worked a in the mediation field, whether it is the mediator for the Post, either outside the Post, either inside the Post on different levels of mediation. In a company which occupies 250,000 people on the whole territory, mediation is not limited to the action of the mediator.
There are strata of mediations and dialogues inside the company which play a completely essential role in the confidence.. My belief is that mediation replays a key role in the creation of the confidence. There are also internal mediation. We often talk about mediation customer-oriented mediation, but in reality, within large institutions, there are the same type of phenomenon.
It allows customers, postal workers and those working in the company to be heard if they feel they can not do it by natural means, and this thanks to mediation which is free, confidential, impartial and transparent. Thus, in a way, creating confidence is the feeling of being listened, being considered and a feeling of a fair treatment. This is actually what makes the foundation of confidence. This is why the theme you have chosen : relation between confidence and mediation is particularly interesting
The second part concerns more directly the Post office. It is clear that this one occupies a rather particular place in our society and has an exceptional capital of confidence. In all rankings, the Post is always on the podium : it is the institution in which we have a high level of confidence, it is the one that has the best imag. There is really is an inseparable link between the concept of confidence and the postal world.
Moreover, we understand very well why : because there is at the same time a personal and intimate and confidential relationship. We thus understand very well that a mission as the Post has could not exist without confidence.
There are several fundamental rules for the strategy of the management philosophy of the Post. I go back to what you were talking about, dear Emmanuel, and which illustrate how to develop confidence by favoring the long-term and live together. I’ll just try to give two or three examples of items that are constitutive, which can both drive change while maintaining or creating confidence.
The first point is to have a management philosophy which is articulated on confidence and whose first element is to work hard on the project, the ambition, the vision and the meaning
If we do not share the meaning or the vision, it is extremely difficult to share the confidence, because it involves to build the future together. The first important point is to spend a lot of time on the project, the ambition and strategic plan and then ensure that the management philosophy is based on the confidence. That is to say, we say to each member of the team what is expected from him, what is his role in the evolution of the company.
Then, the purpose is not to make him an extremely precise method where we showing we would not trust him. On the contrary, we should say “From the moment we told you what we expect from you, we will give you all the means to success.” We have then to prepare everything, to organize the support. It also concerns training, skills, tools, the tools quality, systems quality, the context in which you work, etc.. It means all the conditions which it is necessary to gather so that a person to whom we say what is expected from her, can do the works well.
The third point of philosophy includes Meaning, Support and Follow-up. Normally, confidence goes with requirement. Consideration also goes with requirement. This is the first point.
The second point I wanted to mention is that, obviously, when we have to drive the change, it must be explained, but it is also necessary reassure. It is always very important to say that the change, there are things that do not change. So there what changes, but there are also decisions, innovation, etc.. This is vital, but people need to understand the base of the things that do not change. In a company like the Post Office, the base of things that do not change include these values and the public service missions.
It is necessary to build the change by demonstrating that it is not a break with regard to the values, but that it is a continuity with regard to these values. It is necessary to pay attention, because there may be a difference between the value and the way there it is translated.
The same fundamental values are not translated in the same way in the 50s and in 2010. There is a kind of adaptation to make contemporary these values that are quite essential. It is a question of change while maintaining the values. This is very important, including for confidence : it does not mean that we are going to change everything while keeping our values, but we are going to change for our values. Keep the values today mean still be able to meet the expectations of today’s French people, but they have nothing to do with French of the 50s. If I have not changed and I’m not always in tune not with today’s French people, but those of the 50s, it means that I have lost my values. Indeed, I do not not answer anymore what the French people expect from the Post Office. This is the second point.
The third point is that I am convinced that to create lasting confidence , it is necessary to lean on three pillars in a balanced way in the company. These three pillars are service quality and service relationship within the framework of public service missions, well-being in the work and thegood economic health of the company. It is always important to keep in mind these three pillars. If we think well, nothing holds if there is not these three pillars.
We can not imagine a good service quality or a pleasant job in a company which is in very strong economic difficulies. Just as we can not imagine a high quality service with employees that would not be good in their work. Continuing consideration of the balance between these three pillars is essential in building confidence
Finally, the last point that I think is essential in building confidence – this is the secret of the creation of the confidence – this is to ensure that the company, in the way it works, it manages internal and external environment, is a continuously well balanced balanced treatment and fair for all stakeholders. That is to say, it has to be extremely attentive to citizens, customers and employees and everytime there is an exchange. If I take the example of customers, the exchange is between the quality of service I offer them, the fact that these customers buy my services and products , and they are loyal to me. There is always a balance in the relationship with stakeholders . It is very important to preserve this balance for citizen and client, employee, corporate stakeholders, with the territories and with elected officials, with all partners, whether suppliers or shareholders.
It is the balance between all these stakeholders which is the key factor of the effecticiency and the creation of the confidence. Once you start to treat in an unbalanced way with one of the stakeholders, it will return to a logic of mistrust.
These are some ideas that I wanted to share with you on the situation of confidence in our country, the importance of mediation, listening and fair treatment of each to create confidence in our country and in our companies. Thank you.
Emmanuel CONSTANS
Thank you very much to Jean-Paul Bailly for its intervention. It really a whole conception of both management, confidence and the balance of our society in its future that you presented us. This is extremely valuable for all participants of our conference. Thank you M. Ombudsman for the Rights, thank you Mr. Chairman and CEO, for your double introduction to our works.
We now have, with Marie-Laure AUGRY who will join me in this forum, our two successive round-table talks. But before the first roundtable, we will give you a very short presentation of a film on the mediators of the club.
We have two short films that will be presented before each of the two round-tables so that you can be briefly acquainted with each of the mediators of the club. We were able to realize these movies with the help of journalism students from the Higher Institute of Communication and Professions Audio-Visual, the ISCPA, and training director of the institute, Mr. Baldy. During the last months, they have assisted with extraordinary professionalism that has allowed us to realize these interviews. The whole course has been reduced to a very short time in order to remain within the duration of our conference, but we can find these movies on the club’s website and on the websites of each of the mediators.
The gathering of this set was made by Ivan Roth, I would like to thank, himself a former ombudsman of the RATP, honorary member of our club and a leading expert on issues including audiovisual and on a technical level, since he has done all this in less than 48 hours.
So we present to you the first part of this short movie
First round-table
A growing need for mediation today
Marie-Laure AUGRY
Good morning to everybody, I am very pleased to see you. We will have two round tables.
The first one, Emmanuel CONSTANS said earlier, concerns the growing need for mediation. Moreover, I will ask all those involved in the round table to join me, I’ll be able to introduce them
The second round-table will focus on the mean of building a shared confidence. We will try to be rigorous enough with the time, that is to say, each participant will have about five minutes to facilitate the exchange and questions you want to ask each other.
The first theme is a growing need for mediation. We will se, through the testimonies of each other, the context in which it is related. We said earlier in the introduction, there is the complexity of the society, there is a lack of benchmarks, the difficulty of knowing the right people, to enforce its rights, etc.. It is this context, that will be explained by some interlocutors around this table, that changes consumer behavior. Emmanuel CONSTANS said that the European level has to be taken into account in relation to anything regarding mediation.
You can hear them alternately, I shall give the floor.
Julien HARTMANN who is a member of the emergency Rights association. It is with him that we shall see that the law is taken into account in the fight against social exclusion and that is very important.
Then, we shall have Jean-Jacques HAZAN whom many of you already know, because we see him from time to time on television, he is the president of the Federation of parents’ Councils. We shall also have Ida NAPROUS, who is going to speak to us about a very interesting experience of mediation which takes place in the school environment.
We also have Laurent Garnier, cabinet KP / MA, who will talk about this change in consumer behavior, which I becoming more and more virulent. He will explain why.
We will then have Martine MERIGEAU of European Consumer Centre, which handles cross-border disputes. We will see what can be the place and role of mediation in these very specific cases.
Finally, we shall have Jocelyne CANETTI, mediator of EDF, who is going to speak about one of the aspects of the mediation which is very important in the current context of crisis, that is the treatment of closeness emergency situations
I believe that through the actions of each other, we understand what means this growing need for mediation and under which conditions the mediation can take place.
I will first give the floor to Julien HARTMANN. Thank you for being with us. Your Emergency Rights Association was created in 1995. It concerns the development of access to the law, assuming that the law is a tool in the fight against exclusion.
So this is what you are going to explain : in which circumstances these difficulties are encountered by people who are in the precarious and difficult situations. Then you will explain us what is your approach to meet people, and how you can practice this. The fight against social exclusion, it is to make known and enforce the rights above all
Julien HARTMANN
Good morning and first, thank you for inviting the Emergency Rights Association to have invited the Rights association immediately, which I represent today, to participate in to this symposium..
Indeed, the volunteers of the association, who are mainly professionals of the law for the inhabitants of Ile-de-France, judges, lawyers and academics, went on the field of the fight against extreme exclusion since 1995, three years before the implementation of the law on the fight against exclusion who recognized the method of access to the law as a tool to fight against exclusion with the development of alternative dispute resolution.
With this expertise of the most needy in terms of access to the law and mediation, the association first launched discussions with law professionnals I already mentioned, but also with associations that are closer to needs of the poor, charitable and humanitarian organizations, and also with local elected officials who have a very specific understanding of people’s needs. This reflection led to a conference in the early 2000s
Also let us note the very fast implementation of action regarding the prevention of evictions for rent arrears.
This is a field and a public, people threatened with eviction for unpaid rental, we evaluate them as having a need for the access to the law. That is to say, the need for assistance to the knowled legal information, then the implementation of of an assistance to the exercice of the law. We understand access to judges, but there is also access to other means of dispute resolution, here mediation.ge of the law, it goes through a council or free
In 2000, the professional mediators or specifically trained, did not necessarily exist. It is thus volunteers of the Emergency Rights association, most of the time the lawyers, who besides their knowledge of the law, began working on this alternative mode of resolution of disputes, in equity.
This action of mediation regarding unpaid rent is subject of a partnership with the Abbé Pierre Foundation, the National Housing Federation, the City of Paris and the Police head Since 2001, anyone involved in this type of dispute received the coordinates of places where she could have free access to a diagnosis of his case and, if necessary, the implementation of mediation.
Tens and hundreds such cases have been treated in this framework for more than ten years. In the context of hard crisis in Ile-de-France related to access to housing and also safeguarding in the housing for needy people, this has allowed to find long-lasting solutions.
Conflicting representations are often evoked : on one hand the failing tenant who thinks that the owner is indifferent to his administrative situation, then on the other hand the owner who, very often, thinks that the tenant makes wrong budgetary choices, he sis responsible for that, and that, anyway, the laws exist only to protect the tenant.
This conflicting representation regularly going to lead people to the dispute, to the court, with obviously a cost, a slowness, then a solution and, generally, the debt is not recovered, Indeed, if the disputes concerning renting eviction for unpaid rents, the persons do not pay their rent, it is because they cannot longer do it.
On the other side, you have an expelled tenant who finds himself either in the street, or durably in precarious conditions of accommodation, because we know that the situation in Paris, in particular, is very complicated.
To this situation a bit catastrophic, we oppose a solution provided by mediation which, thanks to a restoration of the dialogue which is very important, the parties will revert to what they were before, namely a tenant and a landlord able to deal problems together rather than making deadlocks. It will aim at keeping both tenure and making a schedule for the owner to recover the debt under favorable conditions.
Marie-Laure AUGRY
Well, these are very specific examples which indeed show that the amicable resolution of disputes avoids a lot of things. You will have the opportunity to answer questions.
You meet people, thus I wanted to point out that there are offices in Paris, there is a bus of lawyers that existed since 2003 and that besides, you also intervene in other important fields that we will not discuss here : this is access to the law and mental health, access to the law in prison.
Jean-Jacques Hazan, good morning. You are the president of the french Fédération des Conseils de Parents d’Elèves. When we listen to the information, we realize that the school is often the source of some tension and conflicts. The parents are obviously concerned about this. You also have a kind of direct mediation role and confidence is essential. We’ll see how you can exercise it with the difficulty that is sometimes linked to the complexity of the texts. However, your role does not stop there, because you also have a warning role.
Jean-Jacques HAZAN
Absolutely, thank you. Good morning everybody.
The FCPE is just over 300,000 member families. Therefore, we have nearly 30,000 delegates who make of their action a rather permanent mediation. This is true at the local, county and national level.
Why are there more needs for mediation and for confidence? Because the stakes which are implemented in the institution or in the company we speek about are considered as more and more important. Then, the complexity of the system makes transparency and clarification difficult. It is necessary that actors of the system can be this link of reconstruction of confidence.
In the Department of Education, it is especially true, at first, because there are few laws and decrees in this field, but many heavy, long, red circulars or not, applied or not.
You know one since we have promoted it. It is circular of 1956 which prohibits homework and is not applied for 56 years : everybody violates it regularly while we demonstrated that it is useless, it is wasting time and it only organizes one thing: conflict at home. Apart from that, there’s really no serious effects.
It is therefore necessary to question a many things and go further, explain them, convince and train. This is an element that generates confidence and transparency.
We can promote confidence. We can show in which direction we want to go, to convince, etc.. Then it must be done, otherwise, confidence quickly gets lost.
Today we are in a stressful situation where everything must be done quickly, we never look very far, we try to go to the most urgent and we put aside a number of key values and rights.
The elements I am going to quote are current elements which generate a lot of conflicts.
The first one is the school catering. Nevertheless, the equal access to public service is something entirely constitutional, but this principle is more and more questioned. It is therefore necessary to go to mediation, to meet a Mayor, to show him what we did
We created two kits for the school catering. There is a kit for mediation and a kit for court. At first, we go with the kit for mediation. This is simple, it is about reports of the courts. But if the Mayor does not understand, if we however want to assert the rights, it is then necessary to proceed to the next step. But if we do not want to judicialize, we must first try to convince, it is a what we try to make in the different fields.
The second conflicting element concerns the lists for the start of school year. You know, these are the lists which normally require only a few things, but that lengthen every year. This makes that school bags are heavier while we want them less heavy. We would like the cost of school less important, that school is free of charge, that the municipalities give more, but finally, the list lengthens.
Nevertheless, we question a fundamental principle of free access to the school when we do so. Thus, , the transparency, confidence and reflection become again necessary.
The third element concerns the redoubling and the no chosen orientation, fully undergone, while finally, apart when anybody committed an offence, which right allows adults to change him his orientation, that is to say his life plan? When a person committed an offence, there is a judge, all right. But, otherwise? By which right do we consider that just because a mark, which it only have a very relative value, would we determine the project and the future of a young person? It is normal that it generates conflicts
The last example concerns the replacement of absent teachers. We totally violate the continuity of public service. Thus we need to add right to restore some confidence. If we want to clarify all this, we need local actors who speak the same language as the complainants. The best tool for mediation with the parents is to have parents who look for this mediation, who try to make it
That is why in the FCPE, we have almost 25 000 mediators who make this intervention, who try to intervene, to remove the conflicting problem between two individuals, for example a teacher and a parent or a child and a teacher, or the institution, then to treat it on the step above. That is to say when there is a problem in a class, to deal with it with the principal or headmaster. When there is a problem in a school, to treat it at the departmental level. We also have a national level. That is why by federating all this, we should be able to manage and to put oil in the gears.
Marie-Laure AUGRY
Thank you very much Jean-Jacques.
We are going to stay in the school environment with Ida NAPROUS.
This is an example of mediation that I find particularly interesting. This takes place in the middle school Anne Franck in Paris. You are a teacher, a professor of history, geography and educational civic, you are an activist of the mediation. Thus, the basis of the experience is how to appropriate to live together in the everyday life in school environment, how to avoid small frictions, the conflicts which may exist You’re going to explain it in detail. What is interesting, it is that this mediation you introduce is made by the pupils themselves. That is to say that these are schoolchildren who go to meet the pupils of the elementary school next door to practice mediation. I find it pretty amazing. Then explain it to us and we will see what are the effects of this approach.
Good morning everybody and thank you for this invitation. I have several caps : I am both a teacher, mediator, mediation trainer and member of the ministerial delegation in charge of prevention and fight against violence in schools, created by Eric DEBARBIEUX.
It is through civic education that I arrived to mediation. The question that crossed my mind, a few years ago, is how to ensure that students appropriate republican values, the values of living together and not just learn more or less by heart the Republican orthodoxy and try to replicate them during a written question.
The question that arises today, not only in both schools where I work, but also in the other schools, is, how prevention and management of conflicts by the mediation can contribute to improve the school climate and to contribute to the well-being of the pupils and the staff?
You know, the media are feeding us every day with paroxystic violence in schools. In fact, most of the violence are “micro-violence,” according the words of Eric Debarbieux. These are uncivilities, jostling, insults. But some of them have a much more serious nature, such as harassment and cyberstalking and can be experienced as real violence, with dramatic consequences. Victimization surveys undertaken by DEBARBIEUX Eric and his team allow us to better understand and to better observe these phenomena.
The school institution is at first, naturally, a place of transmission of the knowledge, but it should also be thought as a better space for socializing.
That is why I proposed the middle school Anne Franck where I teach since 1997 the mediation. It was made as I prepared a university degree for the IFOMENE (Institute of Training in the Mediation and the Negotiation) : I thought that role plays could interest pupils, teaching by having fun.
Thus at the start of 2004-2005 school year, I created in college Anne Frank in Paris a weekly workshop of mediation by the peers and with the participation of voluntary students from sixth to third class. This had a great success because each year, twenty students join it. Some have experienced mediation being themselves “mediated” in elementary school. I had the approval of the principals with allocation of extra hours to ensure the workshop on extracurricular time.
One thing leading to another, the director of the primary school nearby, the school of the street St Bernard, had heard about school mediation, since 70 % of the pupils are then registered in this nearby middle school.
Thus we decided to create something in the school. After a games, theater and mediation workshop , for financial reasons and lack of coordination with the actors, we decided to ransform the project. It thus became a permanent mediation assured by trained college students who come every week in school on extracurricular time to supervise, according to the wishes of the director.
We practise the approach and the protocol, as all the mediators, especially the ANM (the National Association of the Mediators) of which I am a member to promote the school mediation.
Mediation requests come from the students themselves, of the director, teachers or organizers. We also have a place in college and I make co-mediation with young mediators within the college, at the request of the principal, the CPE (Educational Main Adviser), assistants forschool life and sometimes teachers or students themselves
Mediation is at the heart of the school project with just a very good aura, not only actors within the schools, but also parents because I participate sometimes in the Board of Directors College or School Board. Representatives of parents recognize the benefits
What are the objectives of this experiment? It is first to learn to communicate, to become aware of the need for rules to integrate the link with the Law. I insist on the fact that mediation does not exclude punishment. It is part of the repair process.
Marie-Laure AUGRY
You talk about a well understood authority?
Ida NAPROUS
Exactly. It is also a question for trained students and adults to appropriate rules of mediation and contribute to what we call the school base, developing language, social and civic , skills, to allow students to exercise their autonomy and initiative.
What is the result? Primary teachers seeing that there was a small miracle which occured after the extracurricular time while we often have conflicts, wanted to know what was going on in a permanent mediation and what wasmediation. They thus asked for a raising awareness.
We can say that the mediation contributes to an improvement of the school climate, essentially relational climate, but also the equity in the sanctions which are well clarified. She allows to create the confidence for the pupils in their ability to be able to solve by themselves the conflict. The pupils also appreciate the no judgment and the secret at the heart of the approach.
We all practice the same mediation, that is to say that the mediator does not have the solution, but helps children to find the solution that suits both parties.
To conclude, I would take the idea of Jean-Pierre BONAFE-SCHMITT: mediation is not a simple management tool of conflicts but a real educational project for a caring school.
Marie-Laure AUGRY
Here we are, we shall have maybe the opportunity to as you questions with regard to this experience. Thank you very much.
Conncerning the evolution of the behavior of the consumers, you are doubtless all confronted with it. We are going to ask Laurent GARNIER, associate director associated of the cabinet KP / AM, what does this cabinet.
His function is to analyze the verbatim of the consumers as well as the complaint letters. It is naturally the best way to note the evolution of the consumers behavior. However, we cannot say that the result is particularly positive, because there is a real radicalization of the behavior. How do you explain it? Let us make at first observation, how radicalization occurs? Is it by a behavior, in a verbal or other way?
Laurent GARNIER
I represent a research cabinet that analyzes for eight years complaint letters for big companies. We analyzed hundreds of thousands. When I say analyze, I mean linguistically analyze with care to understand what is said and what is not said, what could be said, what is whispered and could become something important later . That’s what we do.
It is on this basis that I am going to speak to you about the observation which we do. Indeed, as Marie-Laure said, there is a radicalization of consumer, citizen behavior , etc…
This radicalization manifests itself very clear on several points. The first point is the judicialization of the reports. That is obvious that in the complaint letters, we see more and more use of law articles, of legal terms of sale conditions, threats of recourse to lawyers or consumer associations and sometimes to lawyers letters.
Responsible for this situation are, of course, the evolution of society, but also insurers who sold accessible legal insurances to consumers and these consumers do not hesitate to use these lawyers and legal insurances
The second observation concerns the use of a more and more frequent smutty language.
The smutty language, which was reserved for the phone and oral channel, spreads now in the written channel. Complaint letters or e-mails also are now concerned with this smutty language. We see thus that there is an evolution which is not very positive.
The third thing is the recourse to what I call the ultimatum, this is the famous ” You are very kind, but you are not going to solve my problem and if you do not do it within the fortnight, you will never hear about me “. This recourse to the ultimatum was something very rare. I can assure that eight years ago, when we began to analyze complaint letters, this occured very rarely. Now, we do not wonder anymore to see it. The customer services managers do not wonder to see these kinds of threats, these ultimatums which are now commonplace.
The fourth demonstration of this radicalization of consumers behavior is what I call the explosive behavior. It is reserved in particular for the phone channel. It is a consumer or user who calls a hotline, who seems very gentle and suddenly, starts screaming on the adviser who is speaking with him. Very often, this extremely violent explosive behavior tends to panic totally the hotliner, because he did not see coming this type of behavior. It is understandable, because often, several bad signals were sent to this consumer and, suddenly, this is the last straw, and the consumer gets excited.
The fifth thing is over-reporting. To make it esasier to undestand, I will talk indices. Overall, it came 100 and the person tells you his story to 130
That is to say that he over-reports what happened to him, so there is a part of lie there, a part of exaggeration. This is a clear manifestation of mstrust. If me consumer, I feel obliged to over-report what happened to me it is because if I say what just happened, it means if I say 100, I feel that I’ll get only 50 or 60 as compensation. So suddenly, I over-state to 130 what really happened to get 100 as compensation.
The sixth thing concerns the requests for systematic commercial gestures. A customer service maneger told me recently that 80 % of received complaint letters were accompanied by express request for commercial gestures. This percentage is very important, but is completely the reflection of what is happening today. This demand was whispered eight years ago and today, it is a kind of absolute systematization.
How to reinject some confidence? I end with that. It is absolutely crucial, because we see that behind that deviant or explosives behaviors, or which become more radical, there is some mistrust which is at the heart of this.
When we work on it, we finally realize that the best way to inject confidence passes through the relationship. The most effective way to re-inject confidence in the heart of the relationship between consumers and brands between users and institutions is the relational vector. I do not have time to develop it here, but I’ve done several studies on it.
I just finish with a last sentence that I borrow from Thierry SAUSSEZ that I found very interesting, he said “Customer service is in charge of the trust in a world of mistrust.” It does mean how the relationship is currently at the heart of consumer expectations. Relationship and action of customer service, but also the action of mediation that will inject confidence . The challenge is there and not somewhere else.
Marie-Laure AUGRY
Here is how to recreate some confidence, it will be the theme of our second Round Table. Thank you very much for thie details which are interesting. I think that everybody make the same observations almost daily.
Martine MERIGEAU, thank you for being with us. You are Executive Director of the European Consumer Centre. You are accustomed to border disputes. In your function, you obviously call national ombudsmen, this is what you are going to explain. This project is part of European regulations. The nature of your disputes is mainly of electronic order?
Martine MERIGEAU
That’s right. I’ll start by pointing out the incredible evolution, I believe, of mediation in France in the last decade. If we look at what happened, I think we also pay tribute to all those mediators who are here today and who, by personal commitment and extraordinary power have been able to structure the mediation. Thank you for making this work. We will continue to do so.
Maybe a word concerning the mediation in Europe. It is necessary to say it, the impulse is very European. It is the European Commission which began, more than fifteen years ago, to emphasize the mediation as a method of resolution of the disputes. Remember yourselves the recommendations of 98 are still present, they serve as reference. We had the directive of 2008.
Now, we have two very important texts which have just been adopted by the Parliament and by the Council in December. A directive which requires each state member to have a system of alternative dispute resolution in every area of consumption So we have to get to work, because it is lacking in some areas anyway!
Then, an immediate application regulation which plans an European platform for all the e-commerce dispute settlements. It means that the consumer, in any European country, will have access to this platform in his language to find a mediator, to settle his dispute.
I call back the functions of the European center of the consumption which has the peculiarity to have two centers, France and Germany, under a same roof. In Kehl, just next to Strasbourg, we handle more than 55 % of all the cross-border disputes which are listed in the European Union.
We have a kind of visibility of the cross-border disputes. 68% of them concern the e-commerce. Regarding the latter, we realized an experimental project, as we believe this is the future. We must find a mediator Net.
I remember that in 2007/2008, we went with the German ministerial delegation to Paris to see what was happening on the side of the mediator of the Net, an excellent example obviously to settle the e-commerce disputes. We set up an experimental project which now concerns more or less five regions in Germany with an increasing progress. The mediator of the Net does not exist any more in France, we will absolutely need to settle a new one, because it is really the solution to all the e-commerce disputes where the values of dispute are relatively weak.
We are currently leading in Germany for the mediator of the Net a project with a rather revolutionary for the French puritanical souls financing, because we have a public financing, but also private. We started with the German approach that says the mediator of the Net serves as much the interests of the companies as those of the consumers. That is why we must have a public and private bi-financing. Of course, some mediators may encounter the problem of independence. I can assure you that it is going very well. We have a charter with the professionals who finance the mediator of the Net. We have a charter with the Government and an agreement granting the funders. We work like that for two years and it is going very well. There is no interference from anyone in the treatment of mediations
Jocelyne CANETTI
Just a word to say that a “e-commerce” mediator was appointed to the FEVAD in October, this is Bernard SOUFFI. He now performs his role of mediator.
Marie-Laure AUGRY
All right. Jocelyne Canetti anticipated her public speaking.
She is mediator of the EDF group. Although this is not the majority of the problems she faces, we chose to underline an aspect which is very interesting, in the context of the current crisis and for this winter period, it is the treatment of emergency situations, such as the threat of power cuts.
Emergency! There’s almost a paradox, Jocelyne, with mediation because one of its virtues is to give time! No stretchable time, but a reasonable time, to solve the problem. We intervene in emergency, because it is the human being who dominates.
Jocelyne CANETTI
I think that’s part of the mission of the mediator.
It is true that it is complete paradox! Mediation requires time, it is reflection, investigation, it is equity but, when it applies to emergency situations, you have to react quickly. Take the example of the SAMU (EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE). It is necessary to react fast with humanity.
We have to deal with various emergency situations. I would say that we are here for that. We are at the highest institutional level in order to take into account individuals, human beings with listening capacity and put them in safety. The first thing in these emergency situations we have to treat is to be human.
Then, we give ourselves the time for reflection, discussion, deepening of the subject. It is necessary to treat the human being in an individual way and this is expected by our institutions which give to the mediator the time to do it and the willingness to treat the human being on the same level as the institution. We say stop to the institution. We stop, we look, we put the person in safety and then we deal, obviously with the values of the mediation, with a listening and in equity having treated in safety the individuals.
The Mediator is the ultimate recourse at the highest level of the company. That is why we are expected for human, personalized listening, because somebody in the company has to be able to listening to individuals, human beings
All the mediators whom we represent have this attitude of extremely personalized attention, ensuring the safety of people and this before any deepening of their case. Listening, balance. I’ll take the example of mediator of RATP I like because he was delegate to the victims. That’s good, because it is the mediator who has to support this human aspect. It’s the human aspect that is assigned to the highest level of the company to an identified individual, clearly accessible and who will listen to humans.
Human being is very important for the mediator. That’s what we tried to do every day, with all the cases we handle, whether there are as a matter of urgency or not. The persons who submit us cases as a matter of urgency know very well that they are not in the normal circuits of the company. These are cries for help.
Marie-Laure AUGRY
It is of course something very important. It involves all the qualities of the mediation. The positioning at the highest level of the company allows to suspend a decision, to take time to find the right solution and sometimes even to go further, by making recommendations.
Jocelyne CANETTI
On all these issues, we have recommendations
We formulate it all, in a way that the processes or the procedures take into account these individuals who are in situations of emergency, crisis, difficulties, etc .Formulate recommendations is an integral part of our work. We make it all along with the current in our jobs. I am used to say that we play a role of “itching powder” with regard to all the diverse and varied services, so as to better take into account difficult situations. We make it on a daily basis, we do not always say it.
We also say it in our annual report which is public. It formulates reports of what we see and the recommendations for improvement. In 2012, for example, I saw exploding in the mails the requests for compensation which are formulated. It was totally minor in 2011 contrary. It is a subject for which I shall ask the services to work in 2013.
Marie-Laure AUGRY
Thank you Jocelyne
Through all the testimonies you have heard some words stand out. The importance of listening, fairness, respect, confidentiality, but also free access. This is one of the virtues of mediation.
First, I would like to congratulate you because you were perfect in respect of your time, which now allows us to establish a dialogue with the audience. First question is always the hardest. Who will ask the first question to a speaker? We will give you a microphone. Can you introduce yourself and say what you do, because it is interesting to see, among the people here, the function of each other
