Employment disputes: What does the extended early conciliation period mean for you?
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) early conciliation period is to double from six to 12 weeks in a bid to lower the number of employment disputes going all the way to tribunal.
The hope is that giving employer and employee extra time to work through their issues will enable more disputes to reach settlement before this happens and take pressure off a currently overloaded system.
The new statutory regulations – which will come into effect on 1 December (2025) – come amid a huge backlog in tribunals up to 49,800 at the end of 2024, a 23% increase on the previous year and longer waiting times as a result.
The problem has been exacerbated by increasingly complex cases, a shortage of qualified employment tribunal judges and reportedly longer waiting times for Acas to initiate contact between the parties due to workload pressures on its conciliators.
What does Acas do?
Acas is an independent, impartial organisation which works with both employer and employee to try to resolve workplace disputes without an employment tribunal having to get involved.
How does the early conciliation process work?
The early conciliation process begins when a party to an employment dispute (typically the prospective claimant) contacts Acas to say they want to take a claim to the employment tribunal.
Acas then offers to help both parties reach an agreement to avoid this happening. This has been the law since 2014.
If the parties can’t reach an agreement within the set period - which was six weeks but will be extended to 12 from 1 December – Acas issues the prospective claimant with an Early Conciliation certificate giving them at least one month to submit their claim.
What will the new rules mean in practice?
The new, extended 12-week early conciliation period will apply to any case put forward to Acas on or after 1 December.
Some employment lawyers have expressed concern that this move, combined with changes under the Employment Rights Bill to increase the time limits for bringing a claim to a tribunal from three to six months (expected to become law in October 2026) will disadvantage employers.
However, Niall Mackenzie, Acas chief executive, said: “This is a prudent move and good news for workers and employers looking to resolve disputes at work, giving them more time to seek resolution without a potentially costly tribunal.
“The service that we offer has not changed and people still have the same right to access early conciliation or an employment tribunal.”
Get in touch
If you need advice about this area of the law, please contact Wards Solicitors’ specialist Employment Team.
Wards Solicitors win high praise in the 2026 edition of the independent Legal 500 guide.