Early conciliation: seven unanswered questions

From 6 May 2014, potential claimants will not be able to lodge an employment tribunal claim without first notifying Acas through the early conciliation process. Employment lawyer Laurie Anstis and Gill McCarthy, Acas director of operational policy and performance, joined Rob Moss to discuss early conciliation, tribunal fees and other important changes in our webinar on 9 April 2014.

The webinar attracted a live audience of 1,400 people, with more than 200 questions submitted for the Q&A session. Here, we bring you the top seven questions on early conciliation that were not relayed to our panel before the webinar finished.

The questions, answers for which are published on XpertHR, include who in your organisation Acas will contact about early conciliation, and if there is a charge for employees or employers to use the early conciliation service. Whether or not a refusal to engage in early conciliation will be taken into account by an employment tribunal was another popular question.

1. Who will Acas contact about the early conciliation of a potential employment tribunal claim?
2. Will a failure by either party to engage in early conciliation be taken into account by an employment tribunal?
3. Is a fee payable by employees or employers wanting to make use of Acas early conciliation?
4. Is it possible for a potential claimant to lodge a claim with an employment tribunal without first notifying Acas through the early conciliation process?
5. Can a potential claimant’s legal representative contact Acas and engage in early conciliation on his or her behalf?
6. How long will a potential claimant have to lodge an employment tribunal claim if early conciliation is not successful?
7. For how long after an employee has left an organisation can he or she make use of early conciliation?

Other recently published XpertHR content on this topic includes practical guidance for employers on how to get the most out of early conciliation and a new model policy setting out how your organisation will deal initially with contact from Acas.