Research exploring the reasons affecting employers' decision to decline early conciliation.
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How can Acas encourage more employers to make the best use of early conciliation?
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Acas’s Individual Dispute Resolution team found that service data showed a small but significant number of early conciliation notifications stopped when an employer declined to engage. Many of these turn into employment tribunal cases, with employers either settling or the employee withdrawing during the employment tribunal process.
The research examines individual conciliation cases where employers feel they have no case to answer, following an early conciliation notification being made by an employee.
This report is based on 24 in-depth interviews with employers.
The research aims to understand:
- why employers do not engage in early conciliation in cases that then go on to settle or the employee withdraws, after an employment tribunal application has been made
- what might persuade these employers to engage in early conciliation in order to resolve the dispute earlier
This report was prepared for Acas by Darren Bhattachary and Emily Fu, The Social Agency (formerly Basis Social).
The views in this research paper are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect those of Acas or the Acas Council. Any errors or inaccuracies are the responsibility of the authors alone. This paper is not intended as guidance from Acas about how to manage disputes in the workplace.