ACAS More Information

 

 

 

Acas aims to improve organisations and working life through better employment relations. We provide up-to-date information, independent advice, high quality training and we work with employers and employees to solve problems and improve performance.

 

Ambition: To improve organisations and working life through better employment relations.

 

Founded: 1975. We have 30 years experience of working with people in businesses of every size and sector.

 

Status: Publicly funded ensuring we are independent, impartial and confidential.

 

Governed: By a council made up of leading figures from business', unions, independent sectors to academics. Acas Council is responsible for determining the strategic direction, policies and priorities of Acas and for ensuring that its statutory duties are carried out effectively.

 

Structure: Acas have a Chairperson and a Chief Executive as well as Regional Directors who are responsible for delivery of Acas services across England, Scotland and Wales. Approximately 900 staff based in 11 main regional centres throughout England, Scotland and Wales with our head office in London.

 

Acas History

1896 - a voluntary conciliation and arbitration service launched by the government. This also gave free advice to employers and unions on industrial relations and personnel problems.

 

1960 - the service became known as the Industrial Relations Service.

 

1972 - the service became known as the Conciliation and Advisory Service.

 

1974 - the Conciliation and Arbitration Service set up as an independent service directed by an independent council.

 

1975 - renamed the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

 

1976 - on January 1976 Acas became a statutory body under the terms of the Employment Protection Act 1975.

 

Legislation

 

 

 

In all areas of the activities of the business, but especially it seems within Human Resource Management, the business must ensure that it abides by every piece of legislation, regardless of the stakeholder group which the legislation protects (e.g. employees and customers).

 

The main pieces of legislation affecting the successful operations of the Human Resource Management department are:

 

1. The Employment Relations Bill, 1999 (stating that employees who have been in employment with the same business for a period of one year have the right not to be unfairly dismissed).

 

2. The Employment Rights Act, 1996 (covering unfair dismissal, redundancy and maternity).

 

3. The Public Interest Disclosure Act, 1998 (covering employees who disclose confidential information).

 

4. The Health & Safety at Work Act, 1974 (covering working conditions and the provision of safety equipment and hygiene).

 

5. The National Minimum Wage Act, 1999 (making it illegal for employers to pay less than £3.60 per hour to its full-time staff who are aged over 21). As of 2004 National Minimum Wage is £4.50 for 22 years and over; and £3.80 for 18-21 year olds.

 

6. The Equal Pay Act, 1970 (stating that pay and working conditions must be equal for employees of the opposite sex who are performing the same work).

 

7. The Sex Discrimination Act, 1975 (stating that it is illegal to discriminate against an employee, or an applicant for a job, on the grounds of their sex or their marital status).

8. The Race Relations Act, 1976 (stating that it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against an employee, or an applicant for a job, on the grounds of their ethnic background).

 

9. The Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 (stating that it is illegal for a business with 20 or more employees to discriminate against an employee, or an applicant for a job, on the grounds of their disability).

 

Employee Participation

 

 

Employee participation means many things to many people. Essentially it is about involving non-managerial staff in the decision-making process of an organisation. It is, however, the EXTENT of involvement in decision-making that is problematical.

 

Choices in Employee Participation

 

Consultation – Participation occurs when employees are consulted about decisions affecting their working lives.

 

Job Enrichment – The employee is given more discretion to make decisions affecting his own job.

 

Participative Management Style – The initiative for participation rests with open management who employ an 'open' approach to managing people where plant level councils may be set up where managers/employee representatives discuss and jointly decide a wide range of strategic issues.

 

Collective Bargaining – Many people feel that collective bargaining should be extended to include forward planning issues. The adversarial nature of the process may militate against its use as a form of participation.

 

Works' Councils – This idea is based on the West German approach that confers on employee representatives the legal right of access to information from management on a wide range of issues and the right of joint decision-making on all personnel matters.

 

Board Representation – This is participation at 'policy-making level'. Employees can elect worker directors whose power and influence will depend on the number of such directors on the board. In Germany, Supervisory Boards include employee representation but there are no such members of the Management Board (Executive Board). The EC is a firm believer in employee participation at Board level.

 

Quality Circle – This is a work group of 8-10 employees and supervisors who have a shared area of responsibility. They meet regularly – typically, once a week, on company time and on company premises – to discuss their quality problems, investigate causes of the problems, recommend solutions, and take corrective actions. They take over responsibility for solving quality problems, and they generate and evaluate their own feedback. But management typically retains control over the final decision regarding implementation of recommended solutions. Part of the quality circle concept includes teaching participating employees group communication skills, various quality strategies, and measurement and problem analysis techniques.

 

Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) – Employee stock ownership plans are company-established benefit plans in which employees acquire stock as part of their benefits. Approximately 20% of Polaroid, for example, is owned by its employees. Research has shown that ESOPs increase employee satisfaction. In addition, they frequently result in higher performance. ESOPs have the potential to increase employee job satisfaction and work motivation.

 

 

Termination of Contracts

 

 

The final role of the H.R.M. department is to make the termination of the employees' contracts of employment as smooth and efficient as possible. There are a number of different ways in which employees can have their contracts of employment terminated, including:

 

1. Redundancy. It will be necessary at certain times (e.g. during a recession, or a decline in the industry) for a business to 'downsize' its workforce (make a certain proportion of them redundant).

 

This process could be done in several ways, voluntary redundancy (where workers opt for a redundancy package), compulsory redundancy, 'last-in-first-out' (where the most recent appointments are the first to be made redundant), or retention by merit (where the least effective employees are made redundant).

 

2. Retirement. At the end of their working-life, employees will wish to retire and stop offering their services to the business. In return, they will often receive a lump-sum payout, as well as both their state pension and their private pension.

 

3. Transfers and Resignation. This occurs when an employee leaves the business and transfers their services to another business (the employee may apply for a more senior job at another business).

 

4. Dismissal. This is where the employee is deemed to have broken their contract of employment, and told that their services are no longer required by the business. Fair dismissal can be on the grounds of sexual harassment, racial harassment, bad timekeeping, sleeping on the job, and destruction of business property.

 

However, if an employee feels that they have been unfairly dismissed (e.g. on the grounds of pregnancy, ethnic background, or union membership), they can apply to have the case heard at an industrial tribunal.

 

This is a small court that deals with claims of unfair dismissal and discrimination from employees against their (former) employers. If the employee is successful in claiming that they have been unfairly dismissed, then they are eligible for re-instatement in their previous job, as well as a financial award (to cover loss of earnings, and pain and suffering).

 

Disputes and Grievance Procedures

 

 

 

a) Collective –            involving issues taken up on behalf of the employees by their trade union representative (substantial or procedural). Usually described as 'disputes'.

 

b) Individual –           involving an individual employee only. These are described as 'grievances'.

 

 

Disputes have a far greater impact on employee relations than grievances and are concerned with disagreements between employees and their own employer and which are wholly or mainly about matter directly affecting their terms and conditions of employment.

 

Grievances are disputes between an individual employees and his/her employer. To handle this kind of issue, organisations will establish grievance procedures as below. Such grievances are initiated by employees.

 

Stages of a Typical Grievance Procedure

	Employees raises grievances with immediate supervisor

 

 

 

 

 

	If matter not settled, it is taken to the next level of management, and the employee may be accompanied by a friend or trade union representative

 

 

 

 

 

 

	If the matter is still not resolved, it is taken to a senior management level, and the employee may take a representative as before
	If the employee is still not satisfied he may appeal to the Managing Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discipline procedures are classed as individual disputes and are designed to provide fair treatment of 'misbehaviour' by employees. Discipline procedures are initiated by management.

ACAS

 

Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (A.C.A.S.)

 

The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service was set up by the government in 1975 as an independent body that helps to settle industrial disputes and claims of unfair dismissal by employees. As the name suggests, there are three main services that are offered by ACAS, advice, conciliation and arbitration.

 

A.C.A.S. representatives can be invited into a business by the two feuding parties (employers and trade unions) in order to offer their advice to both parties on the industrial unrest and the 'best' way to proceed in order to settle the unrest.

 

Conciliation is an attempt to get the two sides in an industrial dispute to resolve their differences. A conciliator listens to the arguments of both sides, and then tries to encourage the trade union and the employer to negotiate and compromise so that they can reach a solution that is acceptable to both parties.

 

Arbitration is the process of resolving an industrial dispute by using an independent person to decide the appropriate outcome. The arbitrator will look at the arguments put forward by both parties, and then he will arrive at a decision. The decision can be legally binding on both parties if this was agreed prior to the arbitrator's decision.

 

Pendulum arbitration is a type of arbitration in which the arbitrator will decide completely in favour of one party or the other, with no compromise or negotiation being allowed. It is likely, therefore, that both parties (the employers and the trade union) will make their demands more conservative and realistic than if the arbitrator was allowed to choose an outcome which was somewhere between the two.

 

 

 

Pay Bargaining

Trade unions are most closely associated with negotiating with the employers of a business on behalf of their members over the issue of pay. This is known as the 'pay-bargaining process', and it is an example of collective bargaining.

 

The first stage in this process is for each side (the employer and the trade union) to decide on its objectives. As well as deciding the amount of a pay rise, both the trade union and the employer will also need to decide how the money will be distributed amongst the members of the trade union (i.e. will the pay rise be a 'blanket' coverage giving every employee a fixed percentage rise, or will different groups of workers receive different percentage pay rises?). Further to this point, will the pay rise be awarded in a lump sum per employee, or will it be staggered over time?

 

The second stage involves both sides (the trade union and the employer) presenting their arguments at a 'pay-talk' discussion. A trade union will put in a 'pay claim', which will be based on one or more of the following points:

 

1. An increase in the cost of living (i.e. inflation) requires that workers have a pay rise in order to maintain their purchasing power.

 

2. An increase in labour productivity rates will mean more sales revenue and profits for the business, this extra profit should be shared with the workers by giving them higher rates of pay.

 

3. A pay rise is required in order to recruit and retain the 'best' workers that the business can find.

 

4. If workers are using new machinery and working practices, then they need to be compensated for this extra work by being given a pay rise.

 

 

The employer will put forward a 'pay offer', which they believe will reflect the current trends in the labour market (i.e. the rates of pay which are being offered by rival businesses), as well as maintaining the competitiveness of the business (i.e. not increasing their costs by a large percentage).

 

The third and final stage involves a negotiation process between the trade union and the employer. In order for this to be a success, both sides will be required to compromise and be prepared to accept less than their original objectives.

 

It must be remembered that there are many other issues that a trade union will negotiate for its members other than pay rises (e.g. length of the working week, working conditions, and proposed redundancies).