Acas sees rise in involvement in large-scale industrial disputes

The annual report from Acas says that there has been a significant increase in demand for the conciliation service to assist in large-scale industrial disputes, with it being involved in 1,054 collective disputes from 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011, up 15% from the previous 12-month period. 

The report says that, of the 1,054 requests for assistance in collective conciliation, pay-related issues (49%) were the most common, followed by redundancy (12%) and trade union recognition (11%). High-profile disputes conciliated by Acas involved employers like Network Rail, the BBC, London Underground and British Airways. Acas highlights that disputes concerning staff pensions became more common in 2010/11. 

The figures also reveal that North-West England saw the most cases with 228, closely followed by Scotland with 220. South-West England had the lowest number of collective-dispute cases involving Acas, with just 26. 

In relation to individual disputes, the number of cases received by Acas from employment tribunals for conciliation, excluding equal pay cases in local authorities and the NHS, was 74,620 compared with 87,421 in 2009/10. The most common claims involved unfair dismissal. 

The volume of potential claims referred for Acas pre-claim conciliation increased by more than 80% in 2010/11, while the proportion of appropriate referrals settled or otherwise resolved has risen from below 40% in 2009/10 to 51% in 2010/11. The proportion of completed cases in which no subsequent claim was made to an employment tribunal rose from 70% in 2009/10 to 74% in 2010/11. 

Also

Over 50% of employers have used Acas to settle tribunal claims, finds HR & Compliance Centre research More than half of the respondents to an HR & Compliance Centre survey on employment tribunals have used Acas at least once to settle an employment tribunal claim before it goes to court. 

Tribunal reform: Acas warns that multiple claims should not be excluded from conciliation proposals Acas has generally welcomed the Government's proposals for employment tribunal reform in its official response to the consultation, but has reservations about aspects relating to: excluding multiple claims from the conciliation plans; giving Acas a "power" to offer post-claim conciliation; and employment judges sitting alone more often. 

Employment tribunal reforms: Acas conciliation In our look at particular aspects of the Government's employment tribunal proposals, we summarise the proposals for increasing the role of Acas conciliation.