Acas Early Conciliation 




The first step in all employment tribunal claims is to submit an Acas Early Conciliation (EC) Notification Form, following the Acas EC procedure. Acas EC is free. There is lots of information about how it works on the Acas website. Its purpose is to provide a structured chance to explore conciliation before litigation is launched (De Mota v ADR Network & Another [2017] UKEAT/0305/16/DA). In general, the EAT has tried to deter employers from making technical challenges to tribunal claims based on breaches of the Acas EC procedure, warning that the new system must not be allowed to encourage “satellite litigation” or to act as an extra barrier to justice for claimants. Even so, it is vital that members follow the Acas EC rules exactly, to avoid a costly tribunal challenge. 


Acas EC is initiated by the member, by completing an Acas EC Notification Form, available from the Acas website. This compulsory first step must be taken in all tribunal claims except one for interim relief (see Chapter 5). Having taken this first step, the member can then choose whether to actively participate in the EC process. So can the employer.



Apart from a claim for interim relief, no claim can be heard by the tribunal without an Acas EC Certificate Number, issued by Acas once the Acas EC process is completed. 


The Form must be submitted to Acas within the normal time limit for bringing a tribunal claim (usually three months). Help completing the Form is available from the Acas Helpline tel: 0300 123 1100. It can be submitted online or by post. It must be submitted by the potential claimant, who can choose to include the contact details of a representative, such as their union rep or solicitor. Where a union member includes these details, Acas will contact the rep directly instead of the member. 


The Form should be completed carefully to avoid any risk of it being rejected. A mistake can result in the claim being dismissed, and if the time limit for bringing the claim has expired, the claimant may lose the chance to enforce their rights. Although the tribunal has a discretion to extend time to bring a claim, extensions are rare.




The Form asks for basic details, including names and contact details for the parties. It does not ask for information about the dispute. The aim is to enable Acas to correctly identify and contact the employer. Acas can reject the Form if it thinks the information provided is inadequate. It is very important to be accurate when naming the employer to avoid a costly challenge in the tribunal. 


If there is more than one respondent (for example, a discrimination claim against an employer and a manager), the tribunal rules require a separate Acas EC Notification Form to be completed for each respondent, each submitted inside the three-month time limit. It is sensible to submit them all on the same day if possible. 


Acas promises to make first contact (by telephone) with a prospective claimant within one working day and to allocate the claim to a named conciliator who will try to resolve the dispute through telephone calls to each side.




Acas’s role is that of an impartial conciliator. It is not to advise claimants as to whether any settlement offer fairly values their claim. If in doubt, members should check with their solicitor or union rep before agreeing to a settlement. Acas settlements, once reached, are binding and cannot be undone. 




Acas has four weeks to try to achieve a settlement through EC. The conciliator can extend this period by a further two weeks if there is reasonable prospect of a settlement and both parties agree. For more information, see the Acas guide: Early conciliation explained. 
 


If a final settlement is reached, Acas records it as a COT3 Settlement Agreement (see page 470). 




At the end of the early conciliation period, if no settlement has been reached Acas will issue the potential claimant with an Acas EC certificate to show that conciliation was considered. There is a reference number on this certificate, without which is not possible to issue a tribunal claim. 




Even if Acas EC fails to resolve the dispute, once a tribunal claim has been issued, Acas remains under a continuing statutory duty under its long-established conciliation service, to help the parties settle their dispute, right up until the claim is compromised, withdrawn or finally decided by the tribunal. 




Acas EC is a "pre-claim" conciliation process. Once a claim has been issued, Acas EC falls away and any changes are a matter for the tribunal judge’s case management discretion, not for Acas. For example, there is no need to submit a fresh Acas EC Notification Form to change a respondent, add extra respondents (Drake International Systems Limited v Blue Arrow [2015] UKEAT/0282/15/DM), or add extra claims (Science Warehouse Limited v Mills [2015] UKEAT/224/15). The EAT has said that any other approach would result in unnecessary layers of litigation, empty formality and a waste of Acas resources and would act as a further barrier to justice.



Similarly, the same Acas EC certificate will cover any new claims that arise after the Acas EC Notification Form has been submitted, as long as the incidents giving rise to the new claims “relate” in some way to the original dispute. This reflects the reality that employment disputes often evolve over time. It would make no sense for a claimant to have to apply for a fresh Acas EC certificate for every twist and turn in their employment dispute: