Dealing with co-operative disputes
Your co-operative’s rules must have a grievance procedure which sets out what to do if a member has a dispute with:
- another member (including a person who was a member not more than 6 months before the dispute occurred)
- the co-operative itself.
The rules have the effect of a contract between your co-operative and its members and any alleged breach of the rules should be dealt with according to your dispute resolution procedure.
Your grievance procedure must:
- let the members involved appoint anyone to act on their behalf
- apply natural justice.
This means all parties involved in the dispute should:
- know the full facts of the situation
- be heard by the Supreme Court of Queensland
- have the right of reply to any accusation.
Resolving a dispute internally
Resolving a dispute at the earliest opportunity is usually the simplest and most cost-effective way for all involved.
If a dispute arises try to resolve the dispute directly with the members involved. If this direct approach fails, then use the dispute resolution procedure in your rules.
If the matter remains unresolved consider obtaining legal advice from a suitably qualified legal practitioner or resolve the dispute externally. You can find a legal practitioner on the Queensland Law Society website.
Resolving a dispute externally
Your co-operative or a member can apply to the Supreme Court of Queensland to help resolve the dispute. The Supreme Court can make a binding judgment on such a dispute.
You could also try an alternative dispute resolution method such as mediation or arbitration. You can get free mediation from one of our dispute resolution centres.
Our role in a dispute
The Office of Fair Trading can only intervene in matters relating to alleged breaches of the Co-operatives National Law (Queensland) including:
- continuing to operate whilst insolvent or unable to pay debts
- acting with intent to defraud or for any other fraudulent purpose
- failure to hold board meetings
- failure to hold an annual general meeting
- failure to maintain minutes of meetings
- failure to provide financial reports to members
- failure to lodge annual reports/annual returns.
We cannot:
- intervene in or conciliate disputes between members and a co-operative
- provide legal advice (including an interpretation of a co-operative’s rules)