Early Conciliation Tony Cooper, Director, Acas South West

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Early ConciliationTony Cooper, Director, Acas
South West
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Early Conciliation The background

• Long history of conciliation
• Pre-claim conciliation introduced in 2009
• Very successful
• 24 formal settlement
• 50 no ET1 submitted
• Drawbacks?
• Often not enough time before ET1 due for
  submission to conciliate
• Only taken up by small percentage of those
  lodging ET1s

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Early conciliation

• Introduced April 2014
• Aimed to address those two issues by
• Requiring all potential tribunal claimants to
  notify Acas first of their intention to make a
  tribunal claim
• Providing for the expiry of the claimant's legal
  limitation deadline to be placed on hold for a
  period of time following the notification.

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Early Conciliation Myth No.1

• Mandatory conciliation
• Obligation to notify Acas of intention to claim
• Web-based form
• Engaging with the conciliation process is
  voluntary
• Early conciliation support officers

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Early Conciliation- Main features

• Following notification to Acas, the claimants
  limitation period for making a tribunal claim is
  put on hold.
• This stop-the-clock period allows conciliation
  to take place without the claimant needing to
  take legal steps to protect their rights
• It creates more time to explore settlement than
  now
• One calendar month initial period

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Early Conciliation -Main features

• Provisions for both early conclusion, and
  extension, of the limitation pause
• If conciliation is unsuccessful we will issue a
  Certificate and the claimant can make a Tribunal
  claim
• Presenting in time remains the responsibility of
  the Claimant (not Acas)
• At least one calendar month to present after EC

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Early Conciliation Main features

• Case for life an EC request is not a separate
  claim
• Conciliation can still take place after the
  limitation pause comes to an end but before a
  claim is submitted
• Conciliation offered after an ET1

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Early Conciliation- How is it working?

• Volume of notifications

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Early Conciliation- How is it working?

• Engaging with the process

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Early Conciliation- How is it working?

• Early indications of outcomes

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Early conciliation impact on ET cases
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Early Conciliation Myth No.2

• Acas should be weeding out the weak claims
• Acas conciliation is a further barrier to
  justice
• No regulatory power
• Conciliation is voluntary
• Inform, influence, persuade
• Only Employment Tribunal has power to strike out
  a claim

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Early conciliation impact on ET cases

• April June 2014
• 3,792 single claims received
• 70 down on corresponding quarter in 2013
• 33 down on previous quarter

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Early conciliation Benefits?

• Early resolution is
• It is a free service, and overall costs are a
  fraction of those for Employment Tribunals (8 of
  costs for employers 2 for employees)
• It is voluntary there is no obligation to
  continue at any point in the process
• It is easier and less time consuming
• Its a chance to avoid the stress, cost and
  anxiety of a tribunal claim

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Early Conciliation- Practical tips

• Acas is collating a contact list - For more
  information, contact ECcontactslist_at_acas.org.uk
• Engage with the process, particularly if you are
  likely to want a copy of the certificate at a
  later stage
• S18b notification

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Early conciliation where next?

• Employment Tribunal decisions starting to emerge
• Exemptions
• Timescales for entering a ET claim
• Unison judicial review?
• General election?
• Labour proposals to review fees announced at
  Autumn conference

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Early conciliation where next?

• Continue to work with BIS to refine aspects of
  the policy framework of the service
• Continue to learn how conciliators can best focus
  their efforts to meet the needs of parties
• Research next year to tell us more about the
  contribution we make to dispute resolution over
  and above the COT3 settlement, and the factors
  that influence the behaviours of the parties to
  the dispute.

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Acas contact information
ECSO team- 0300 123 1122
Acas website www.acas.org.uk
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How Acas can help
Customer services team 0300 123 1150 Acas
helpline 0300 123 1100
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BIS Growth Vouchers

• Acas services can be purchased with a Growth
  Voucher
• Cover half the cost for advice and support up to
  2,000
• Whos eligible
• Co. size fewer than 250 fte
• Turnover less than 45 million
• Two areas of work
• improving management leadership skills
• recruiting and developing your workforce
• Apply for vouchers before end March 2015
• Work to be completed before end June 2015
• www.acas.org.uk/sw
• 0300 123 1150