The Acas annual report for 2008/09, published this week, shows that the recession has caused a significant increase in the number of employment tribunal claims, with an increase of 18% in the number of claims referred to Acas for conciliation. Most strikingly, the number of unfair dismissal claims brought to tribunal has increased by 22% to 55,000 claims in the year.
A clear sign of the effect of the recession on Acas's workload is an increase in the proportion of calls to its helpline asking for advice relating to redundancy. Demand from employers for training on managing redundancies is also up.
You can read more about the annual statistics on the Acas website.
The report covers the period which saw the repeal of the statutory dispute resolution procedures, and the introduction of the revised Acas Code of Practice. The Code (PDF format, 1.58MB) and the accompanying guide to discipline and grievances at work (PDF format, 897K) can both be downloaded from the Acas website.
The XpertHR website has numerous FAQs on dealing with disciplinary procedures and grievances at work, including on the effect of the revised Acas code.
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