The Acas 2018/19 annual report has revealed a 21 per cent increase in the demand of its conciliation services. There were around 132,000 notifications of early conciliation in the past year, with 39,000 of those relating to a tribunal claim – up 40 per cent over the previous year.
Over the courseof 2018, 73% of notifications did not lead to a tribunal claim, either because there was an informal or formal resolution or because the claimant decided against launching a claim. Of those that did proceed to tribunal, Acas conciliation resulted in 51% being settled, with a further 18% withdrawn by the claimant. Just 9,000 of all disputes that Acas dealt with over the period were decided by a tribunal.
The other feature was the large number of group notifications, some 4,200 in total covering 29,000 employees. Acas records helping settle four out of five disputes between groups of workers and their employer.
