What did we get up to last month?
Katharine attended an ACAS seminar about the early conciliation process that will be compulsory from 6 May. In a nutshell, from that date all potential claimants will be obliged to contact ACAS prior to issuing a claim so that ACAS can assist the parties in reaching a settlement before the matter ends up in Tribunal. If settlement is not achieved, ACAS will issue the claimant with a certificate which will allow he or she to proceed to Tribunal. The claimant’s deadline for submitting his or her claim will be put on hold while conciliation is attempted and the clock will be restarted once that certificate is received.
The effect of that is that every single claim will have a different deadline by which it must be brought. This is in stark contrast to the current and relatively straightforward 3-month deadline that applies in the vast majority of cases.
While the overarching aim of the early conciliation process is good, we are very concerned about the impact that this scheme will have on the deadlines for claims to be brought. We think that this aspect of it will lead to confusion, with claimants missing their deadlines due to the difficulty in calculating the amended deadline for issuing their claim, or, at the very least, it will lead to many more preliminary hearings to enable the tribunal to determine whether or not a claim has in fact been issued in time.
I’m also pleased to report that Katharine and I completed the Wildlife Trust 10k Business Challenge in Cambourne on Sunday and raised more than £300 in the process. Thank you to everyone who sponsored us.
Giles Betts
Partner and Head of Employment Law