17,000 people use Acas' new Early Conciliation service

Acas has published its first quarterly update on Early Conciliation which shows that 17,145 people have used the new service between 6 April and the end of June 2014.

Around 1,000 people contacted Acas about the service each week during April, increasing to 1,600 a week during May and June.

The statistics suggest that the service has had a successful start following a change in the law that required anyone thinking of making an Employment Tribunal claim to contact Acas in the first instance.

Acas chief executive, Anne Sharp, said: "Early Conciliation has got off to a good start and has given us the chance to help more people resolve their disputes early. Early Conciliation has only been running for three months and it is still too soon to give a comprehensive analysis of the full impact of our new service but early indications are very positive."

Happy to talk

Richard Fox, head of employment law at Kingsley Napley, commented: "The Q1 figures for the new Early Conciliation (EC) Service are encouraging. They indicate that, despite some of the cynicism that was around when plans for the service were first unveiled, in fact employees have generally been happy to take up the opportunity to talk.

"It would appear many employers are cooperating too. It would therefore seem the new system will further relieve the burden on tribunals and help prevent many claims from 'going all the way'. But not in as crude a way as simply imposing disproportionate fees which will put off many would-be litigants from advancing their claims."

Fox continued: "Some interesting issues are emerging which will need to be wrestled with. For example, how to determine which enquirers are time wasters with no real intention of reconciling, but who are engaging the system merely because they have to. Also how to respond to employees who seek to engage the (publicly funded) services of ACAS, when in fact they have no real intention of bringing a claim. In other words they are looking to take advantage of a free (to them) service, to see if they can secure an enhanced settlement 'on the cheap'."

Concluding, he said: "Nonetheless the indisputable first impression from [the] data is that Acas is now performing a really useful enhanced role in the new employment dispute resolution environment. If employment lawyers and their clients have not already taken this new service seriously, they had better wake up and smell the coffee sooner rather than later."