Dispute resolution in action The Commission’s dispute-resolution service is impartial, flexible and free, and is offered for discrimination complaints and complaints of sexual harassment, racial harassment, racial disharmony and victimisation for having made a discrimination complaint. Mediation can provide an important outcome to a person who has been discriminated against and on occasion enables widespread systemic change. The Commission also uses the evidence collected through the disputeresolution process to understand where structural discrimination may exist, which in turn informs its education, policy and broader research work. Complaints can be made in any language and the Commission arranges a free interpreter or New Zealand sign-language interpreter if needed. As well as resolving the particular situation for the individual, mediation provides a good opportunity to address the underlying cause of the complaint. Over the year, 42 outcomes were recorded that addressed systemic discrimination. • Disability discrimination is one of the most commonly reported complaints to the Commission. Examples of mediated systemic outcomes include: purchase of a hoist at a hydrotherapy pool; enabling access for disabled swimmers; a school board changing procedures to improve consideration of autism in suspension/ exclusion cases; a supermarket providing staff training about customers with disabilities, particularly where symptoms of disability may appear as intoxication; and a government agency implementing a nationwide policy to help staff to respond appropriately to clients with assistance dogs. A major transport provider worked with the Blind Foundation to develop an app for visually impaired customers to announce stops and fares. Many more mediations resulted in reviews of processes that directly or indirectly have a negative or unfair effect on people with a disability. • Employment and pre-employment discrimination account for 42 percent of complaints. Outcomes resulting in systemic changes included: changes to parental leave and breastfeeding policies; changes to advertising/pre-employment practices so as not to risk breaching section 67 of the Human Rights Act; and diversity training for organisations where race complaints had been made. There were many occasions where it was agreed sexual harassment policies would be updated and more widely promulgated within the workplace. • In other examples, a local authority reviewed its policy on age restrictions for pensioner accommodation; two major public service providers developed policies on mothers breastfeeding their infants and held staff induction courses to ensure the policies were implemented. Annual Report 2018 39