---
title: "External Dispute Resolution"
space: "Industrial Relations Documentation"
url: "http://www.buff0k.co.za/ir-docs/external-dispute-resolution"
updated: "2026-08-17"
---

# External Dispute Resolution

An **External Dispute Resolution** record tracks a matter referred to an outside forum - CCMA, Labour Court, Labour Appeal Court, or the Constitutional Court - rather than resolved internally.

![An External Dispute Resolution case: forum, applicant and respondent, company](/files/ir-external-dispute-resolutiona767a6.png)

## What it captures

- **Case No.** (the doctype's own name), **Forum**, **Process** (Con/Arb, In-Limine, Arbitration, Conciliation), and set-down dates.
- **Applicant** / **Respondent** - free text, not linked Employee records, since an external dispute can involve people or entities outside the system entirely.
- A formal **Outcome** once resolved (Settled, Monetary Award, Re-instatement, Retrospective Re-instatement, or Matter Dismissed) and any settlement value.

## Notifications

Unlike the disciplinary/incapacity/poor-performance workflow, External Dispute Resolution notifications - both the creation alert and the weekly digest of outstanding matters - are **not** filtered by Designation or Branch Limits. This is deliberate: a dispute is inherently multi-employee/multi-branch in a way a single accused-employee case isn't, so there's no single designation or branch to restrict against (see **IR Role Restrictions - Designation Limits & Branch Limits**).

Next: **Anonymous Report**.