New changes to acas early conciliation process

Since 6 May 2014 it has been mandatory for employers who intend to make a claim in the employment tribunal to go through acas early conciliation prior to making their claim. The introduction of mandatory acas early conciliation, coupled with the introduction of fees to the employment tribunal, has seen a significant reduction in applications to the employment tribunal of 80%. The aim was to reduce the number of meritless claims entering the employment tribunal. Whether or not this reduction represents those claims that are with or without merit is yet to be shown.

On 15 January 2015 acas updated both their early conciliation process and the online form which employers are required to complete in order to initiate acas. The new form allows employees to provide their representatives details and confirm that they are happy for acas to deal directly with them. Here is a link to their new form: https://ec.acas.org.uk/Submission/Create.