Workplace Mediation Reforms tarnished in UK as Acas votes to strike

As people who look at my main website will appreciate, I do training connected with workplace mediation.

Within England & Wales, The Gibbons Review published one year ago has been a catalyst for the expectation that there will be far greater use of mediation in the workplace.

Acas is going to have a bigger role in resolving workplace disputes.

Within England & Wales, the new Employment Bill proposes to give tribunals the discretion to increase compensation awards by up to 25% if an employer unreasonably fails to comply with a new Acas statutory code of practice on discipline and grievances and Acas is going to have increased role with the the removal of the fixed conciliation periods.

Personnel Today reported last month, "Acas chief Ed Sweeney has insisted the service will rise to the challenge of growing demand from employers when the statutory dispute resolution procedures are scrapped next April.

The government last week announced an extra £37m funding for the arbitration and conciliation service over the next three years to make it better equipped to intervene early in workplace disputes.

The service has previously suffered budget and staffing cuts, but the government now wants Acas to offer more mediation in line with the recommendations from the Gibbons Review.

Sweeney told Personnel Today that Acas would recruit up to 50 more help­line staff - bolstering numbers by 50% - to prepare for the expected surge in calls when the law changes.

All employees would be trained to a set of minimum standards in mediation, he said.

"The helpline people will be providing advice as mediators, but much deeper guidance and advice will be needed than they currently offer. It's a question of training the staff and upping our game," Sweeney said.

He claimed Acas's mediation service was "second to none", because of its experience and independence."

All well and good.

Consider this which is on the BBC website today-

"Staff at labour conciliation service Acas have voted to go on strike in a row over pay. Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) voted by almost two to one for a rolling programme of one-hour strikes.

Union members say the service failed to make a pay offer last year.

Publicly-funded Acas works to resolve workplace disputes. Unions warn that failure to resolve its own workplace dispute could embarrass the government.

"The failure of any pay offer and the lack of substantive negotiations have forced the very people who resolve industrial disputes into voting for strike action themselves," said general secretary Mark Serwotka.

"The government can avoid embarrassing and damaging strike action in Acas and elsewhere in the civil service by addressing low pay and paying a fair wage."

Some observations:

1 This is pretty embarrassing for the Government and Acas. With the government's consultation still to be published on the Gibbons Review, there is an element of we are all in the dark on this one. Nevertheless what we do know is that Acas is going to have increased funding, there is a new code on discipline and grievance going to be introduced with it impacting the way disputes are resolved.

2 There is still a lack of understanding of mediation per se. Mediation is one form of ADR. Judging by some of the reporting people and indeed some of the players, people are still confusing conciliation to mediation.

3 Now - Is Acas and its staff going to instruct a mediator to sort this one out?