Conciliation Update: April 2018 - September 2018
Table 1: Early Conciliation (EC) Notifications by Track, Apr 2018 - Sep 2018
EC Notifications | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employee Notifications1 | Fast | 3,721 | 6,985 | 4,833 | 4,220 | 5,517 | 4,165 | 29,441 |
Standard | 2,109 | 2,189 | 2,073 | 2,173 | 2,322 | 2,108 | 12,974 | |
Open | 2,140 | 2,428 | 3,476 | 2,634 | 4,401 | 2,675 | 17,754 | |
No Track | 641 | 734 | 926 | 802 | 705 | 644 | 4,452 | |
All | 8,611 | 12,336 | 11,308 | 9,829 | 12,945 | 9,592 | 64,621 | |
Employer Notifications | Fast | 42 | 47 | 48 | 285 | 64 | 255 | 741 |
Standard | 197 | 201 | 139 | 276 | 147 | 135 | 1,095 | |
Open | 52 | 60 | 52 | 44 | 37 | 32 | 277 | |
No Track | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 28 | |
All | 293 | 313 | 241 | 609 | 255 | 430 | 2,141 | |
Total | 8,904 | 12,649 | 11,549 | 10,438 | 13,200 | 10,002 | 66,762 |
Some EC notifications are made on behalf of groups of employees. Over 2,100 group notifications, covering more than 18,000 individuals, are included in the total of 66,762 notifications shown in Table 1. This means that the number of individuals covered by notifications was of the order of 85,400 between April 2018 and September 2018.
It should be noted that from April to September just shy of 11,400 connected cases which appear in these tables were submitted in relation to a particular dispute concerning Equal Pay and other related jurisdictions.
Note: Acas records indicative jurisdictions against cases received. Many cases involve multiple jurisdictions so 'track' is used to categorise cases by jurisdiction. Open Track cases contain at least one discrimination or disclosure type jurisdiction. Standard Track must contain Unfair Dismissal or a related jurisdiction. The remaining Fast Track cases mostly relate to monetary issues such as unpaid wages. In some cases Acas has not yet identified any relevant jurisdictions which is why a small minority are recorded as 'no track' cases. Cases are confined exclusively to one of the three tracks, because track is determined by the highest jurisdiction in the case.
Table 2: Early Conciliation Status, Cases Cleared Apr 2018 - Sep 2018
All Conciliation Case Outcomes Current Status, Apr 2018 - Sep 20182 | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Year to Date | |||||||
No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
COT3 Settlement | 1,243 | 14 | 1,268 | 11 | 1,225 | 11 | 1,595 | 14 | 1,385 | 11 | 1,343 | 14 | 8,059 | 12 |
Dispute has not Progressed to Tribunal Claim | 4,659 | 53 | 7,100 | 63 | 6,990 | 64 | 7,311 | 63 | 9,307 | 71 | 6,699 | 70 | 42,066 | 64 |
Dispute Progressed to Tribunal Claim | 2,876 | 33 | 2,834 | 25 | 2,775 | 25 | 2,735 | 23 | 2,477 | 19 | 1,561 | 16 | 15,258 | 23 |
Total | 8,778 | 11,202 | 10,990 | 11,641 | 13,169 | 9,603 | 65,383 |
15,258 (23%) of Early Conciliation cases closed in April to September 2018 led to an Employment Tribunal claim. By the end of September, 22% of these cases were settled by Acas conciliators or withdrawn with a further 72% still in progress as shown in Table 4 which provides a further breakdown of the progress of these cases. Table 3, below, shows the number of ET1 cases received and input by Acas in this period.
Table 3: Employment Tribunal (ET1) Cases by Track, Apr 2018 - Sep 2018
ET1 Cases Received | April | May | June | Jul | Aug | Sep | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ET1s Received following on from EC notification | Fast | 958 | 823 | 756 | 855 | 685 | 597 | 4,674 |
Standard | 1,188 | 981 | 982 | 1,192 | 817 | 701 | 5,861 | |
Open | 1,309 | 1,254 | 1,181 | 1,310 | 1,056 | 939 | 7,049 | |
All | 3,533 | 3,162 | 2,984 | 3,449 | 2,638 | 2,305 | 12,540 | |
ET1s Received without prior EC notification | Fast | 37 | 33 | 19 | 39 | 29 | 16 | 173 |
Standard | 26 | 35 | 22 | 19 | 22 | 24 | 148 | |
Open | 15 | 36 | 24 | 34 | 29 | 28 | 166 | |
All | 78 | 104 | 65 | 92 | 80 | 68 | 487 | |
Total | 3,533 | 3,162 | 2,984 | 3,449 | 2,638 | 2,305 | 18,071 |
These are split into two groups, 'ET1 Received following on from EC notification' relate to cases that had not been resolved at the Early Conciliation stage and progressed to tribunal. The second part of the table refers to cases without a clear link to an Early Conciliation notification such as cases in which one of the exemptions applies as set out in Regulation 3(1) of SI 254/2014.
Table 4: Current Status of EC Cases Closed in Apr 2018 - Sep 2018 for which an ET1 has been submitted
Current Conciliation Case Status where ET1 submitted, Apr 2018 - Sep 2018 | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Year to Date | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % |
Dispute in progress | 1,561 | 54 | 1,832 | 65 | 1,941 | 70 | 2,113 | 77 | 2,106 | 85 | 1,432 | 92 | 10,985 | 72 |
COT3 Settlements so far achieved | 772 | 27 | 584 | 21 | 507 | 18 | 413 | 15 | 230 | 9 | 87 | 6 | 2,593 | 17 |
Withdrawals following Acas intervention | 221 | 8 | 211 | 7 | 154 | 6 | 110 | 4 | 77 | 3 | 27 | 2 | 800 | 5 |
Determined already by Employment Tribunal | 322 | 11 | 207 | 7 | 173 | 6 | 99 | 4 | 64 | 3 | 15 | 1 | 880 | 6 |
Total ET1 cases | 2,876 | 2,834 | 2,775 | 2,735 | 2,477 | 1,561 | 15,258 |
The above table represents the ET1-stage outcomes to date of those EC cases which completed the EC stage in 2018-19 and where claimants subsequently initiated tribunal proceedings. The number of corresponding ET1 cases may differ from these figures because some individual EC notifications link to multiple tribunal cases and sometimes several EC notifications will be represented within one tribunal case.
Notes:
- It is not possible to be absolutely precise about the number of individuals because some people submit more than one notification, usually either because they need to name more than one respondent or in an attempt to be precise about the respondent's name (legal identity).
- Whereas Table 1 and Table 3 set out the total number of cases that were received per quarter, Tables 2 and 4 give the number of cases which reached an EC-stage outcome in that period - drawing in many cases which were received in previous quarters and excluding cases which have not yet reached an EC-stage outcome. So, although there will be considerable overlap in terms of the cases involved, the total number of cases differs.