Kate Nowicki, Director of Dispute Resolution, oversees Acas's work across the country to resolve workplace disputes.
This week the government plans to introduce a "once in a generation overhaul" of employment rights. Whatever your views on the new Bill and its contents, it will trigger a wider conversation and focus on what we know about the workplace – and, in particular, how we build healthy successful workplaces that contribute to the growth of our economy.
In Acas we have been speaking with our key stakeholders and partners about our role and focus for the next 5 years, and some themes are emerging:
- The legislative changes could offer a new framework and opportunity to reset the dial on building a constructive social partnership between employers, employees and trade unions.
- This reset could lead to greater levels of trust and respect, a healthier relationship and improved communications. And in turn allow parties to focus on shared outcomes to address head-on the causes of conflict before it evolves into formal dispute.
There are clearly challenges to address. Recent Acas-commissioned research from the Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) at Warwick Business School shows that many HR professionals, trade unionists and business owners have lost the art of negotiation. Too often, disputes come to Acas at a late stage, where positions are entrenched and parties polarised.
The good news is that Acas still facilitates resolution in the vast majority of cases. Other research shows that where disputes do come to Acas, there are high levels of satisfaction from all parties, praising Acas negotiators' impartiality and ability to resolve intense conflict and disruption. But it's tougher going than it could be or should be, and whilst a skilled conciliator is key to success, reaching an agreement also depends on both parties being willing to make concessions.
Two clear themes emerged from the IRRU research on why resolution of collective conflict has been especially difficult in the current period:
- First, cost of living pressures have contributed to polarising positions in collective bargaining, making agreements increasingly difficult to reach.
- Second, and perhaps more profoundly, a knowledge gap has opened up in Britain around the very nature of collective workplace conflict, on how to manage it, and the role Acas can play in its resolution.
The background to this knowledge gap is partly cultural – 'industrial relations' has long been seen as the poor cousin of the HR profession. Over time skills have been lost. Put simply – people have forgotten the art of negotiation and compromise. Our experience in Acas is that this is a contributory factor to why recent disputes have felt so intractable. The issue is exacerbated by a new societal context: we seem to be getting worse, not better at disagreeing well. Studies show that political divisions in advanced economies are deeper than any time over the last 50 years.
And yet we know, trust pays – firms with higher trust between employer and employees are more productive, more profitable and have better quality products and services. At the other end, when people can't resolve differences, it is extremely bad for business – in fact individual conflict costs UK workplaces more than £28.5 billion a year.
What were the knowledge gaps exposed by the research?
Across the board, respondents in our research commented on declining levels of skills and experience in the processes of industrial relations, particularly around negotiation in resolving conflict and understanding of the role of Acas.
Employers attributed weaker negotiation skills to managers having developed their professional practice in a period of declining union membership and low levels of expressions of collective conflict, resulting in a lack of investment in skills around negotiation and conciliation.
Acas conciliators observed increasing unwillingness to involve Acas early in disputes. They felt that for some unions and employers, the idea of involving Acas was associated with failure of the parties to reach agreement by themselves. People who had not used Acas collective dispute resolution did not realise that Acas has a statutory impartial role to improve workplace relations; this lack of understanding led to them not taking up our services.
Moreover, interviewees talked about the 'ritual' element to collective dispute resolution processes as having diminished, with parties on both sides increasingly "not playing the game". There was a sense that parties are entering negotiations with no intention to move from their original positions. Which clearly prevents effective talks from happening.
What is happening with industrial disputes in Britain?
A separate evaluation of Acas's collective conciliation service by National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) surveyed and interviewed representatives from both sides of Acas-conciliated disputes.
The key findings were:
- disputes reaching Acas have intensified and are increasingly dominated by pay (half of disputes in 2016, compared to three-quarters of disputes in 2024)
- disputes are escalating to Acas faster – and there is a wider gap between the demands of the workforce on pay and the pay offers from management
- relations between the parties are more tense – more than two-thirds of disputes coming to Acas had already involved action or the threat of it (up from less than half in 2016)
- understanding of collective disputes is lower – more organisations were found to be experiencing their first difficult collective disputes, with 40% of employers being first-time users of Acas services (this chimes with the IRRU findings of the 'knowledge gap' in experience and skills)
What advice would Acas give to employers and trade unions entering into negotiations?
- Grow your capability in negotiation skills and understanding of employment relations and before you go into negotiations, confirm your red lines of accountability.
- Enter into talks with an openness to compromise. Table your first position, not your final position and be prepared to listen, reflect and seek a shared outcome.
- Aim for win-win. Allow yourself to think about the other parties' position. And start with confidence that you will leave the room with an outcome – not a stalemate.
- Think about long-term rebuilding of relations. Both trade unions and employers want the organisation to be successful, have engaged staff and respond to changing technology. So, when you leave the room – be thinking about how to avoid a dispute next time.
- Use Acas as a tool. We can help both parties think differently, open up the discussion and test positions. And as an impartial broker, we can help you reflect on mutually beneficial solutions, which create a win-win outcome.
The next period is going to see a reset and refocus on industrial relations. We will all need to learn the new rules. It would make for better outcomes if we were to learn them together.
Read our recent research in this area: