Acas Early Conciliation 



The first step in all employment tribunal claims is to contact Acas under the Acas Early Conciliation (EC) procedure introduced in May 2014. Acas conciliation is free. There is information about how Acas EC works on the Acas website. The purpose of Acas EC is to establish whether the dispute can be settled without the need for a tribunal hearing.


Acas EC is initiated by the member, who completes an Early Conciliation Notification Form, available from the Acas website. Completing and submitting the Acas EC Notification Form is a compulsory first step to any claim except one for interim relief (see Chapter 5). 



The Acas EC Notification Form must be completed and submitted to Acas within the time limit in order to be allowed to bring a claim. However, having taken this first compulsory step, the member can choose whether to actively participate in the early conciliation process by engaging with the Acas conciliator. So can the employer.



No claim can be heard by the tribunal without an Acas EC certificate:


Help completing the Acas EC Notification Form is available from the Acas Helpline tel: 0300 123 1100. It can be submitted online or by post. The Form 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, rather than the member. Care should be taken when completing the Form, to avoid the risk of the claim being rejected. 



The Acas EC Notification Form must be submitted to Acas within the normal time limit for bringing a tribunal claim (usually three months). Otherwise the tribunal will not be allowed to hear it. Although the tribunal has a discretion to extend time to bring a claim, extensions are rarely granted.



The Acas EC Notification Form asks for basic details, including names and contact details for the parties. It does not ask for information about the dispute. Acas can reject the form if it thinks the information provided is not adequate. Acas needs sufficiently accurate information to be able to correctly identify and contact the employer. In the following case, a “trading name” was enough, but in practice, it is important always to be as accurate as possible when naming the employer, to avoid a costly challenge.:


If the claim is connected to a TUPE transfer or change of service provider (see Chapter 12), early legal advice should be taken from union solicitors to ensure that the correct respondent has been identified.


Where there is more than one respondent (for example, a discrimination claim against an employer and a manager), a separate Acas EC Notification Form is needed 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 reflects the true value of the 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 for 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 
 (www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/o/g/Conciliation-Explained-Acas.pdf).

If a final settlement is reached, Acas records it as a COT3 Settlement Agreement (see page 509). 



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. Without the reference number on this certificate, it will not be possible to issue a tribunal claim. 



Acas remains under a continuing statutory duty to help the parties negotiate a settlement of their dispute right up until the claim is settled or finally decided by the tribunal. 



Acas EC is a "pre-claim" conciliation process. Once an ET claim has been issued, Acas EC falls away and any changes to that claim will be a matter for the tribunal judge’s case management discretion, not a matter for Acas. This means that there is no need to complete a fresh Acas EC Notification Form to change the respondent, add extra respondents (Drake International Systems Limited v Blue Arrow [2015] UKEAT/0282/15/DM), or extra claims (Science Warehouse Limited v Mills [2015] UKEAT/224/15).


The EAT has said that any other approach to Acas EC would result in unnecessary layers of litigation, empty formality and a waste of Acas resources and would act as a further barrier to justice for claimants.


The same Acas EC certificate will cover 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, and that Acas EC is a confidential process.. It would make no sense if a claimant had to apply for a fresh Acas EC certificate for every new twist and turn in their dispute with their employer: