This thread contains comments to article "Employment minister hails dispute resolution efforts at Personnel Today Awards": http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2011/11/24/58176/employment-minister-hails-dispute-resolution-efforts-at-personnel-today-awards.html.
Whilst I believe mediation can be an effective measure in dispute resolution, for the government to require all employment disputes to go to ACAS for pre-claim mediation before proceeding to employment tribunal is, under the existing resorces of ACAS, niave to say the least. Unless the Government proposes to significantly increase ACAS's resources to handle this massive work load (contradicting current Government policy on funding) I fail to see how it can work. I can see what the Government is trying to achieve i.e. reduce the number of claims going to ET but I think they are going about it the wrong way. Anyone in the field of providing ET representation will know that all cases are sent to ACAS at present but in all the cases I have dealt with ACAS haven't had the resource to intervene. My proposal would be for the Government to look at making the same requirement but using the private sector providers to handle it not ACAS.
Graham Hales
DeHales & Associates
Claims Management Services
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