A public consultation and draft regulations have been issued on the the revised Employment Tribunals Rules. The changes, aimed at improving the efficiency and consistency of the tribunal process, implement provisions of the Employment Act 2002 and recommendations of the Employment Tribunal System Taskforce, with focus on resolving disputes through conciliation in the first instance.
The reforms introduce fixed periods for conciliation in employment tribunal claims. These are intended to influence parties so that they prioritise conciliation at the outset, resulting in an earlier resolution of claims and a consequent reduction in the expenditure of the Employment Tribunal Service.
The reforms also propose the following:
The draft regulations define two periods, a “short conciliation period” of seven weeks for claims deemed suitable for fast-tracking, and a “standard conciliation period” of thirteen weeks for other claims.
The short conciliation period will apply to claims relating to unauthorised deduction of wages (including holiday pay), breach of contract, statutory redundancy payment, unpaid guarantee pay and unpaid medical suspension pay. Where such claims involve unusual complexity, tribunal chairmen will have the power to assign a standard conciliation period to them.
It is intended that revised Regulations will be laid before Parliament in spring 2004 and come into force on 1 October 2004.
For more information on the revised rules, read the DTI’s Executive Summary
Also, Acas has published its own consultation document explaining why it will only be able to conciliate outside the fixed period in exceptional circumstances.
Acas Chief Executive John Taylor said: “The regulations are designed to concentrate the minds of parties on reaching an agreement as quickly as possible by limiting the conciliation period. In future we will only be able to conciliate after the fixed period in exceptional circumstances. We hope that will help people to focus their efforts on reaching a settlement during the fixed period.”
