Demand for early intervention ‘up’

A new report by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has found that demand for its early dispute resolution service rose by around a third in the last 12 months. Acas also reported an increase of four percentage points in the number of cases where an employment tribunal could be avoided. The organisation’s annual report said the early resolution service was mainly used for unfair dismissal cases in the past year. New Government proposals due to come into effect in 2014 will make it compulsory for everyone to contact Acas before they can make an employment tribunal claim. Acas chairman Ed Sweeney said: “It’s very good to see that more people are resolving disputes earlier by using our pre-claim conciliation service. “Our new early conciliation service will mean that disputes will be referred to Acas before a tribunal claim can be lodged and I hope it will build on the success of pre-claim conciliation when it’s introduced in 2014.” Our Employment team provides advice on the employment aspects of all major business decisions. For advice, contact a member of the team: call us on 08456 381381 or email employment@ibblaw.co.uk.