The 2009/2010 Acas report has been released, and shows that the
conciliation service:
- Handled over 900 collective actions (most of which involved
industrial action or collective
redundancies).
- Provided conciliation services in more than 85,000 employment
tribunal actions - the highest rate ever for the service, and 13%
up on the 2008/2009 total.
- Dealt with over one million calls on its helpline.
- Handled more than 10,000 "pre-claim" conciliations -
this relates to claims in which Acas is requested by the parties
involved to conciliate in a case before tribunal actions are
commenced.
Regarding pre-claim conciliations, the report shows that in more
than 70% of these cases, tribunal proceedings were avoided. It also
quoted a study which found that a company can spend £2,000 in
getting to the stage in a claim where an ET3 is filed, so the
savings Acas has facilitated for businesses are substantial.
