ACAS Pre-Claim Conciliation And Early Claims Conciliation

Employees must take early conciliation before they submit a claim against their employer to an Employment Tribunal.

Employees are required to inform ACAS of their intention to bring a claim. Their role is to try to resolve the matter without proceeding to a tribunal and instead bring about an ACAS early conciliation payout.

Early conciliation is crucial because it is an opportunity to resolve a dispute where internal proceedings, such as the grievance procedure, have not addressed the issue.

Whether or not you want to participate in early conciliation, you must inform Avensure if you receive contact from an ACAS conciliator.

Informing ACAS of the intention to bring a claim is mandatory, but there is no obligation to participate in early conciliation.

Employees cannot submit a tribunal claim without informing ACAS of their intentions.

No. In the same way that it is not mandatory for employees, employers do not have to participate. Still, as stated above, you do need to inform Avensure if you receive a request to participate in early conciliation.

The stages of the ACAS pre-conciliation process for an employee are as follows:

1. ACAS is informed of the intent to make a claim, and they will ask the employee if they want early conciliation.
2. If they do, ACAS will ask for some details about the dispute.
3. If they do not want to participate, ACAS will give them a certificate to go to an employment tribunal (if an employee tries to bring a claim without this certificate, the tribunal will strike out their claim).
4. If proceeding with early conciliation dispute resolution, an ACAS conciliator will speak with the employee or their representative to understand the dispute and what resolution they are seeking.
5. At this point, the employer is contacted to see if they are willing to participate in talks.
6. If they are, the conciliator will talk with both sides to see if an agreement can be reached.

(Source acas.org.uk)

The good news is that as your legal representatives, we offer an ACAS early conciliation service and will liaise on your behalf.

Our in-house legal team will contact the ACAS conciliator. We may need more information from you first, and then we will liaise with you to see if a settlement can be reached.

Whilst ACAS can’t advise on the case specifics or whether entering into a settlement is advisable, we can. Of course, we will not agree to anything without your consent.

If both parties have agreed to settle the dispute (which doesn’t always mean a financial payout), a settlement form, known as a COT3 agreement, is drawn up.

This legally binding document, signed by both the employer and the employee, sets out the terms of the settlement agreement.

If the case has been settled and a COT3 signed, the employee cannot pursue their claim to an employment tribunal.

Points to note:

• Don’t ignore a request for ACAS early conciliation. It is the first warning sign of a potential claim. It may save you time, stress and potentially money later.
• ACAS or Avensure does not pressure you to agree to conciliation services. Any agreement under early conciliation will be your decision with your best interests in mind.
• ACAS are conciliators or mediators; they are not there to take sides.
• Contact Avensure as soon as you hear from ACAS. We will need the details of the conciliator and the reference number- you will usually receive a letter or email with all of the relevant information. Just inform them that you will forward this to your legal team, and we will contact you soon.