Resolve a workplace dispute - ACAS Early Conciliation explained

The scenario.

It’s your last day in the office before a 2 week summer break. You look at your ever increasing ‘TO DO’ list, and scheduled meetings for the day when,  you receive an email from someone from an organisation call ACAS informing you that one of your employees intends to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal.  What would you do?

How can you resolve the dispute?

If an individual wants to submit a claim in the Employment Tribunal they have to go through a process called early conciliation.  This process is offered by an organisation called the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (otherwise known as ACAS).

Early conciliation is a process whereby both sides in a dispute try to reach an agreement before an Employment Tribunal claim is submitted. Where a party starts the early conciliation process the deadline for making a claim is pushed back.

A conciliator is allocated to the case and they will act as the ‘middle person’ and will convey the thoughts of each side to the other.

You will first become aware of this when you receive a phone call or email from a conciliator.  You will be provided with some very basic information including the name of the person who intends to make the claim and other details. 

This is when you should seek legal advice.  

The early conciliation runs for 14 days from the date on which the intended Claimant makes contact with ACAS.  It can be extended by a further 2 weeks where the parties agree. In some cases the conciliator may not make contact with you on the actual day they are first contacted by the intended Claimant so the timeframes may be shorter.

If the parties reach an agreement the terms are written down in a document called a COT3 Agreement.  This is a legal document and will be binding when it is signed by all parties.

If agreement is not reached, conciliation can start again after a claim has been submitted if both parties wish to explore this.  It is then called ‘conciliation’ and not ‘early conciliation‘

Please contact the Employment Team should you wish to have a chat about what you can do if you have received contact from ACAS or you think you may be likely to receive an Employment Tribunal claim.