Councils are no strangers to employment tribunals.
Anyone in a council's legal department will be all too familiar with the workload they generate. Which is why everyone has been getting excited about the prospect of settling employment disputes in record time using the new ACAS arbitration scheme. But a closer look shows we should not expect to be going home early just yet. The scheme, launched this week, provides a voluntary alternative to the employment tribunal for unfair dismissal cases. Although the industrial tribunal system was meant to provide a quick and informal setting for resolving employment disputes, tribunals often resemble formal courtrooms complete with barristers and complex legal arguments.