Early Conciliation Explained

Acas has published guidance explaining how early conciliation works in practice.

Early conciliation, launched on 6 April, is now available and becomes mandatory for employment tribunal claims issued on or after 6 May 2014. Early conciliation by Acas is intended to help parties resolve disputes without the need to bring an employment tribunal claim. 

The guidance explains the benefits of early conciliation, how to make a request, the conciliator’s role, what happens if a settlement is or is not reached and the impact on time limits for bringing employment tribunal claims. 

The Early Conciliation website has also been launched and has links to the early conciliation form which claimants have to complete in order to start off the process and guidance for individuals, employers and representatives on completing the form. This makes it clear that it the individual and not the representative has to complete the early conciliation notification form.