Conflict mediation
IBGE officers participate in course of Conflict Mediation offered by 15th Region TRT
August 20, 2025 09h00 AM | Last Updated: August 22, 2025 01h11 PM
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in partnership with the 15th Region Regional Labor Court (TRT), offers the course Mediation of Conflicts to 50 officers appointed by the IBGE´s Directorates, Divisions and State Superintendencies. Aiming at training officers to mediate a conflict before it becomes a complaint, the course began on Monday (18) and closes on November 20.
According to Marcio Pochmann, President of the IBGE, "The unprecedented partnership between the IBGE and the Regional Labor Court offers a mediation course to those interested in training conflict solution, helped by communication and negotiation. “
The course is the first initiative of the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the two offices in relation to conflict mediation, signed in April 2024, which involves training and data sharing by both parties.
"The course aims at precisely mediating the conflict before it becomes a complaint, since an expert in this technique can solve a number of conflicts inherent to human relations and that sometimes make the workplace more difficult. So, if you manage to mitigate these situations and events, the workplace might be nicer, not escalating for more violence - either symbolical or oral - and not overloading the ombudsman and the comptroller," explained Flávia Vinhaes, IBGE´s Executive Director.
The training has two phases: the theoretical step, with meetings broadcast live and the practical step, with on-site meetings. In the first step, the following themes will be approached: General Conflict Theory; Typology of conflicts and organizational conflicts; Communication as a tool to manage conflicts; Negotiation as a way to solve conflicts; and Process of conflict mediation based on negotiation.
In the second phase, a workshop with dynamics, simulations and other active learning methodologies, aiming at consolidating the concepts worked in the theoretical step.
The course also has an assessment (Reflective Record) in which students should reflect on their experiences, thoughts, feelings and perceptions throughout the entire course. According to the Term of Technical Cooperation no. 3/2024, the Court will issue a certificate, through the Judicial School, for participants who had a minimum of 75% of frequency in each step (theoretical and practical).
"Our interviewers get inside people´s houses, in which unpleasant events may occur, as well as inside the institution, in branches, superintendencies and headquarters, especially in census periods, when the IBGE hires many officers. Mediating conflicts is not an intuitive thing. So, this demand arose in the Ethics Commission. We are developing the pilot class and I expect that this course is offered many times at the IBGE," pointed out Vinhaes.
More about the course
The course aims to train officers ready to work through methods, techniques, practices and appropriate language in activities that look for solutions to existing conflicts, by means of mediation, as well as suggesting agreement proposals. The project proposes to raise workers with such profile in the Directorates and State Superintendencies, as well as to accomplish a registry of skilled officers in the mediator’s chamber.
The role of mediators is to be impartial and streamline the dialog between the parties, using techniques that encourage communication and the search for solutions to overcome conflicts, improving the workplace.
