The number of monthly calls being made to the conciliation service Acas’ helpline has doubled since September last year as the impact of the recession continues to put increasing amounts of strain on employer-employee relations.
By the end of February, Acas had referred 8,034 pre-claim conciliation cases to its early conciliation service since launching its free helpline last April to coincide with changes to the Employment Act.
It is currently making an average of 300 referrals per week, but expects the figure to rise to 400 over the year ahead. The service also estimates that arbitration has so far resulted in about 5,000 costly, stressful and time-consuming employment tribunal cases being avoided.
Ed Sweeney, Acas’ chair, said: “The current economic climate has created difficult workplace challenges for mangers, HR professionals and employees. But this data indicates that workers and employers are increasingly taking steps to avoid employment tribunals.”
The earlier such issues could be sorted out, however, the more likely people were to “remain in productive employment in the workplace”, he added.
While most tribunal claims take between six and nine months to resolve, the average length of time spent on arbitration is about three weeks, Sweeney said.
The news came as attempts to prevent a weekend strike by British Airways cabin crew entered their final day. Last night, BA chief executive Willie Walsh and the joint general secretary of the Unite union Tony Woodley were attempting to draw up a document that would enable the union to suspend a three-day walkout scheduled to begin tomorrow.
According to the Guardian newspaper, face-to-face talks at the TUC headquarters in London started badly yesterday when Walsh submitted a new offer that was flatly rejected by Woodley. But by the evening, some of their differences appeared to have been surmounted, leaving only a few outstanding issues to be settled.
Nonetheless, sources close to the discussions described negotiations as “hanging by a thread”. Acas invited both parties to engage in exploratory talks with both Sweeney and chief conciliator Peter Harwood last Sunday. Face-to-face discussions took place with BA and with Unite over the telephone, but Acas refused to disclose details.
