The ACAS early conciliation scheme was introduced on a voluntary basis on 6 April 2014. From 6 May 2014 the scheme becomes compulsory. This means that if an employee wants to bring an Employment Tribunal claim after this date, they will be obliged to go through ACAS before the Employment Tribunal can accept the claim. Within the first few days of the voluntary scheme being introduced, ACAS had received over 500 requests for early conciliation.
The process for notifying ACAS of a potential claim involves completing a short form which can be found on the ACAS website. A telephone call from ACAS will follow and an ACAS conciliator will become involved to try to mediate between the parties to find an early settlement and avoid the matter going to the Employment Tribunal.
If one or both parties are not interested in pursuing the early conciliation process, ACAS will issue a certificate to enable the matter to proceed to issue Tribunal proceedings. If a party declines to participate, this will not be held against them in relation to any future proceedings.
It is important to ensure that the correct procedures are followed and that proper information is given to ACAS. If you are an employer on the receiving end of a claim, it is important to ensure that you act quickly as the window of opportunity to proceed to conciliation is only one month from the form being completed on the ACAS website.
If you would like to discuss these or other employment related issues, contact us.