Demand for Acas services remains high in difficult year for employment relations

Inflationary pressures and cuts in real pay in many sectors have continued to trigger disputes across the public and private sectors in the last year according to workplace expert, Acas, in its latest annual report.

The new annual report covers the period from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024.

Acas Chair, Clare Chapman, said:

“It has been another exceptionally demanding year for Acas and our staff have worked hard to help spread good work practice and resolve conflict in a challenging economic climate.

“The past 12 months have seen continuing inflationary pressures and a cut in real pay across the economy that are key drivers for collective disputes. Acas experts handled more than 600 of these disputes over the past year and resolved 94% of them.

“Our individual dispute resolution service also performed very strongly and helped to prevent costly and distressing court action for tens of thousands of employers and employees.

“The service dealt with over 100,000 cases during the year and over one million in the last decade. These successes have benefitted businesses and workers across Britain.”

Key facts and figures from this year’s annual report, include:

• Acas was involved in 618 collective disputes between employers and groups of workers with a settlement rate of 94%. Pay was the leading cause of the disputes.
• The individual dispute resolution service at Acas, which helps to resolve potential employment tribunal claims, dealt with 104,884 notifications for ‘early conciliation’. Seven out of 10 cases avoided the need for an employment tribunal. Wages were the top cause of conflict, followed by unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.
• The Acas website continues to be popular for employers and employees seeking advice on workplace rights. Customers accessed its web pages 17.9 million times in 2023-24.
• The Acas helpline answered 578,463 calls from employers and employees across Great Britain. Discipline, dismissal and grievance were the top topics for calls.
• Acas trained over 40,000 people in good workplace practice. 93% of attendees said their course met their objectives.
• Acas has made significant efficiencies in key service costs. The cost of handling a case in our collective and individual conciliation services has been reduced by 30% and 11% respectively.

A full copy of the 2023-2024 Acas Annual Report can be viewed here: www.acas.org.uk/annualreport.