According to a recent report from Acas, the first year of its Early Conciliation (EC) service has been a success, with the workplace body dealing with over 83,000 EC cases between April 2014 and March 2015.

A change to the law was introduced last year that meant anyone thinking of making an employment tribunal claim first has to notify Acas, which will then try to resolve the dispute quickly through EC and so avoid the need to go to a tribunal.

Once Acas is notified of the dispute, a one month extension is applied to the timescales within which an employee needs to bring a tribunal claim. This is to allow conciliation to take place to try and resolve the dispute. However, although Acas has a legal duty to offer conciliation, neither party is obliged to accept it.

New Acas statistics for EC notifications received between April and December show that 63% did not proceed to a tribunal claim, a further 15% resulted in a formal settlement (known as a COT3) and 22% progressed to a tribunal claim.

Acas conciliation is still available after a tribunal claim has been lodged until the court date. More than half (51%) of the 22% of cases that progressed to a tribunal claim have now been resolved by Acas.

The research also found that nearly half of all claimants (48%) who used EC either reached a formal settlement or were otherwise helped by Acas to avoid a tribunal claim.

“Early Conciliation has given Acas conciliators the opportunity to do what they do best – to use a tried and trusted approach that helps save claimants and employers the cost, time and stress of an Employment Tribunal,” commented Acas Chief Executive Anne Sharp.

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