CHANGES to the way employment disputes are handled pose a significant risk to workers, a Wyre Forest employment expert has warned.

Kate Jones, an assistant solicitor at Kidderminster-based law firm mfg Solicitors, has called the updated process “a double-edged sword” which can leave claimants “short-changed”.

The new rules, which became mandatory in May, require employees and bosses to first try to settle a disagreement through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), a government-backed agency which runs the early conciliation scheme.

An employment tribunal will now not accept a claim unless the complaint has gone to ACAS and a conciliation certificate has been issued, but there is no obligation on either side to have actually participated in conciliation.

Ms Jones said: “My big worry is that the new ACAS-led rules cannot provide much needed legal advice to employees if they are looking to claim against their employer.

“Any claimant planning to make a claim through early conciliation should seek independent legal advice before they enter into any agreement so they can be sure what they are being offered is fair to them and the circumstances they have found themselves in.

“Failure to do so could see employees being short-changed.

“The benefit of early conciliation is it has the potential to reduce the number of cases going all the way to a tribunal because it makes it much easier and quicker to get both sides around the table and iron out their ongoing differences.

“I fully back that but it is a double-edged sword for workers.

“That is because employees risk finding themselves settling for less if they are not properly advised by an employment expert.”