CLCW × Conflict Analytics Lab: AI and the Reality of Workplace Dispute Resolution
Most workplace disputes are never decided by a court or tribunal. Terminations, grievances and employment claims are overwhelmingly resolved through negotiation and settlement, shaped by the judgment of experienced practitioners. That knowledge rarely enters the public record, which means today's AI tools, trained on statutes and reported decisions, miss most of how labour and employment law actually works.
The Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace and the Conflict Analytics Lab are partnering to study and capture that missing knowledge. Directed by Professor Samuel Dahan, the Conflict Analytics Lab develops AI agents that help practices organize their scattered files and know-how as they work, and turn that knowledge into small reasoning models that learn how practitioners actually assess and resolve disputes. These models run locally, protect confidential knowledge, and work alongside existing AI tools. The approach is already in use in worker classification, through a research partnership with Deel, and is being extended to termination and settlement assessment.
Over the coming months, the collaboration will host practitioner workshops in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, bringing together union-side and management-side lawyers to explore how practices can become "AI-ready" and how AI can responsibly support workplace dispute resolution.
Interested in participating? Contact clcw@queensu.ca.
CLCW & the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT)
The Centre is a partner in the Partnership Project on Institutional Experimentation for Better Work, bringing together the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) and an international network of associated partner centres and researchers. You can find more information on the Project here.