More work for Acas

The workload of the advisory, arbitration and conciliation service Acas continues to increase, according to it latest annual report.

The 2009-10 report also reveals some interesting information on current trends, which provide a good insight into the impact of the economic downturn on industrial relations.

Over a million (1,020,760) calls were answered by the Acas national helpline (08457 474747) — up by around 40% on the previous year (726,306 calls).

Some of this increase is also reflected in the substantially larger volume of cases lodged with tribunals and passed on to Acas for conciliation.

For example, 87,421 cases were referred to Acas in this latest period — 13% more than on the previous year. However, this figure includes a large number of equal pay claims brought against local authorities (25,503 cases).

The types of collective disputes handled by Acas changed a little. There were less disputes about pay and recognition, and more dealing with conditions, discipline and dismissal and redundancy.

Around 40% of referrals were joint employer and union (up by nearly 20% on the previous year); around 20% were employer referrals with higher union-only referrals at 27.5%.

In terms of success in resolving tribunal claims, Acas was able to resolve a dispute by means of a compromise agreement in almost a quarter of cases (23.6%).

One bad statistic: the report shows that employers are 2.7 times more likely to refuse to allow Acas to mediate a dispute.