An incorporated association is required to have an internal grievance procedure or dispute resolution process in place by 22 June 2022.
Currently there are limited ways to effectively resolve a dispute between members or between members and the management committee of an incorporated association. The most available solutions are to call a general meeting of members to air the grievance or make an application to the Supreme Court of Queensland.
In some cases, the management committee resists calling a general meeting and blocks any request from unhappy members to meet in an attempt to resolve an issue. Many people do not have the funds to pursue litigation, and the court has often expressed its reluctance to interfere in membership disputes.
The Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (Qld) has been amended to require an incorporated association to have a grievance procedure providing for a number of steps including the opportunity for mediation if the dispute cannot be resolved amongst the parties.
It is proposed that the model rules will be amended to include a grievance process, but there has been some delay in the publication of the proposed amended model rules.
An incorporated association may set its own dispute resolution process by including it in its rules. This is likely to require the association to amend its rules. If an association does not adopt its own process, it will be bound by the process in the model rules.
With other amendments to the Associations Incorporation Act in 2021 and 2022, it is timely for incorporated associations to review the currency of their rules.
Please contact Lesleigh.
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