ACAS early conciliation ("EC") has been in place since 6th April 2014 and became compulsory on or after 6th May 2014. It is a procedure whereby a prospective Claimant (person looking to make a claim to an employment tribunal) must notify Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) of their potential claim by completing the prescribed EC form online.
Employment Tribunal
The purpose of the EC process is for ACAS to offer impartial conciliation service so as to try to resolve matters between the parties but this procedure must be with the agreement of the parties in particular the Claimant and where such an agreement arises then the limitation period to bring a tribunal claim is extended to take account of the EC period.
The limitation period to bring a claim to an employment tribunal must usually be made within 3 months less 1 day from the date of the issue the Claimant is complaining about and with redundancy pay or equal pay, the claim must be made within 6 months less a day. There are certain exceptions to limitation periods but not relevant to this article.
The EC period can last for up to one calendar month and be can be extended once by up to 14 days if the parties and the ACAS conciliation officer agree.
Where conciliation fails, ACAS are required to issue an EC certificate that contains a unique reference number to the matter that the Claimant must include in the claim form (ET1). Without such a reference number the claim form will be rejected by the Employment Tribunal.
Date Change
The EC period is set to change from 1st December 2020 to a new six-week period with no opportunity to extend the period under the provisions of The Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1003) (the "Amendment Regulations").
The rationale for this change is to give more time for the parties to consider pre- claim resolution via say a settlement option through ACAS.
Apart from the above, the other important change on EC procedure to be introduced is that currently if the names or addresses of the parties on the claim form are different to those on the EC certificate, the claim form will be rejected unless the Employment Tribunal believes there has been a "minor error" in relation to the names and addresses and it would not be in the interests of justice to reject the claim but the Amendments Regulations will permit ACAS Conciliation conciliators to correct errors in the EC form at any time during the early conciliation period.
The article is intended for general information purposes only and should you require further assistance on the matter please contact our advice-line team on 01455852028.
