All employees who wish to lodge a claim with the Employment Tribunal, must first lodge Early Conciliation with ACAS.

Early Conciliation must be started inside of three months from the date of the incident that the employee is complaining about. However, it is preferable to do this as soon as possible.

Once ACAS receive your application they will make contact with you to see what you want to achieve, if you are willing to negotiate with the other side and whether there is anything that can be offered you to avoid litigation.

They will contact the other party to the dispute and ascertain whether they are willing to engage in the process and seek to start a process of mediation between the parties to see if an out of Tribunal resolution can be achieved.

ACAS EC normally lasts one calendar month. But it can be brought to an end at anytime if any party says that they are not willing to take part. It can also be extended by a further 2 weeks if both parties are genuinely seeking to find a resolution.

There is a strict three month time limit for the vast majority of claims to the Employment Tribunal. However, the time limit is frozen whilst ACAS EC is on-going. The actual time limit for presenting your claim to the Employment Tribunal can only be calculated once ACAS EC is at an end; as this will depend upon when ACAS EC was started and how long it lasted for.

It is crucially important to comply with the time limits as failure to do so will mean that your claims are statute barred and you will not be able to pursue them any further.

For further information on ACAS, visit their site here: https://www.acas.org.uk