What is Acas?

How do Acas conciliation, arbitration, and mediation work?

Acas services give advice to employers and when employees are thinking about taking you to an employment tribunal. When this happens, an employee has to notify Acas of their plans.

The Acas conciliation, arbitration and mediation services are there to avoid both parties having to attend an employment tribunal and resolve other disputes.

What is the Acas mediation service?

Mediation is like arbitration, but compensation awards are not made. As an alternative, mediators will make suggestions to the employer and employee. They play a more active role in dispute procedures and help both parties find solutions.

They help guide both parties through the dispute process and suggest ideas on how to resolve the situation. During this process, the mediator does not pass any information on to the other party so both the employer and employee can speak openly.

In the end, both parties will meet which the mediator will organise. Allowing both the employer and employee to say how they feel about the dispute. Questions will be encouraged by the mediator so that solutions can be made.

If you and the employee don’t agree, then you can ask the mediator for formal recommendations.

What services are offered by Acas?

Acas not only offer services to deter costly employment tribunals but also provides the best practices for employment rights and rules. They are known as the Acas Code of Practice.

The guide set the rules for employers and employees in the five areas of fair employment practice. The five guidelines include:

• Discipline and grievance – this practice sets out the basic obligations and standards an employer must follow for a fair workplace disciplinary and grievance procedure.

• Disclosure of information to trade unions – this guide provides direction on information and documentation for employers when it comes to industrial relation action.

• Time off for trade union duties and activities – this practice aims to guide employers about trade unions and time off work.

• Settlement agreements – this code of practice gives details on settlement agreements, how they are negotiated and what employment rights an employer needs to know.

• Requests to work flexibly – this guide sets the standards on how to deal with flexible working requests.

As an employer, you must follow these guidelines and standards if you want to avoid unfair and wrongful dismissal claims.

Discipline and grievance procedures

It’s best practice to try and resolve a workplace disciplinary or grievance between you and the employee. In some circumstances, you will be able to resolve the case informally.

However, sometimes this is not possible, and you must take formal action. The Acas code on disciplinary and grievance procedures acts as a guide on how employers can resolve issues in the workplace.

Disciplinary issues are the result of poor performance, capability or misconduct, so should be dealt with in a fast and effective way.

Time off for trade union duties and activities

This Acas code of practice aims to help create better relationships between employers and trade unions. It does this by providing advice on how to agree on paid and unpaid time off.

This could include time off for union activities, to conduct training or simply to fulfil duties as a trade union representative and member.

The code highlights that employers and trade unions are jointly responsible for setting up specific, mutual arrangements.

Requests for flexible working

Employees have the legal right to request flexible work once every 12 months. This is after they have been working for your business for 26 weeks. This Acas code of practice deals with how you can manage reasonable manner requests correctly and fairly.

It’s good practice to implement a policy for flexible working requests. This will help create consistency for all your employees. It also helps to stop any discrimination as flexible working is for everyone and not only for parents and caregivers.

How can employers avoid common pitfalls?

Sometimes errors will be made by employers following the Acas code. When these errors happen, an employee might claim unfair dismissal or wrongful dismissal.

So, here are some common pitfalls that you should think about when following the guidelines.

• Not providing the right information – you must ensure you have the right information, documents and evidence when undergoing a disciplinary or grievance hearing, or for industrial relations activity.

• Not allowing or telling an employee they have the right to be accompanied in some hearings – Acas codes and the law specifically say that employers must allow employees to be accompanied. It is best practice to let your employees know of this right.

• Not keeping a written record when undergoing procedures – these are preferred over witness recollections as they are more reliable in the event of a claim.

• Not keeping to deadlines and delaying procedures – you should know and work to relevant timeframes.

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