From 6th May, before submitting a Tribunal Claim, a prospective Claimant will need to participate in mandatory early conciliation through Acas before they can submit a claim to the Employment Tribunal. Acas is an independent, impartial Government organisation mandated to liaise with both parties to an employment dispute with a view to reaching settlement and thereby avoiding or cutting short Employment Tribunal proceedings.

The time period for submitting a Claim will be extended to take into account the time spent in mandatory early conciliation, i.e. the time period clock will be 'frozen'. In terms of procedure there are three basic steps to the process, those being:

  1. A prospective Claimant (or their representative) contacts Acas and provides basic details regarding their employment complaint. This can be done by telephoning Acas or completing a short form online;
  2. Acas will make initial contact with the prospective Claimant, explain the process, take some details from them and check that they wish to proceed with conciliation. As long as they confirm that they do wish to proceed, Early Conciliation will continue;
  3. Acas will contact the prospective Claimant and discuss their complaint with them and check that they are happy for Acas to contact the employer. If so, Acas will contact the employer and, providing that they are willing to participate in Early Conciliation, Acas will try to promote a settlement between the parties for an initial period of one month. This period may be extended by up to 14 days.

If it is not possible to contact the parties or they indicate they do not wish to participate in Early Conciliation, an 'EC Certificate' will be issued. If a settlement is not reached, because Acas considers settlement is not possible, or because the period for conciliation has expired, an EC Certificate must be issued. The EC Certificate will give the prospective Claimant a unique reference number which will need to be included on the Claim Form when submitting the claim. If a Claim Form is submitted without this number it will be rejected and the Claim will not proceed.

In commenting on the process, there appear to be a number of potential benefits of settling a claim through Acas during Early Conciliation. These include: simplicity, speed, cost, confidentiality and effectiveness, with Acas reaching a settlement 80% of cases. However, this new process also comes with new challenges which any prospective Claimant must be well aware of before undertaking the process of Early Conciliation. Perhaps now more than ever it is crucial for prospective Claimant's to get effective, clear and concise advice on their employment complaint and the potential value of the same.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.