From 6th May, it became compulsory for potential claimants to notify ACAS of an intended tribunal claim before presenting it to the tribunal. ACAS will try to conciliate between the parties before the tribunal claim is lodged, for a period of a month which can be extended by up to 14 days.
However, once the potential claimant has contacted ACAS, entering into conciliation is voluntary. The potential claimant or respondent can simply notify ACAS that they do not want to enter or continue with conciliation. ACAS will then issue a certificate to the potential claimant with a unique reference number which they have to include on their tribunal claim form.
Also this month, the time period for a transferor of a business to provide ‘employee liability information’ to a transferee increases from 14 days to 28 days before the transfer. This applies only apply to TUPE transfers that take place on or after 1 May 2014.
Comment
We are already seeing cases in which compulsory early conciliation is required. From our initial experience the system seems to be working well, with ACAS managing to meet the tight deadlines of responding to potential claimants within 24 hours after the initial contact is made. The change to the TUPE legislation involving employee liability information is a sensible one. The 14 day deadline was always too tight for the transferee to process the information provided by the transferor effectively before the transfer date.
At Frettens, all of our solicitors offer a free initial meeting or chat on the phone to answer your questions. If this article raises issues for you or your business, please call us on 01202 499255 and Kate or Paul will be happy to discuss it with you.
Comments