Who wants to be an employment lawyer? If you have read the Acas Annual Report for 2003, you might be tempted to believe that employment law is a sector in decline. The report shows that the number of applications reaching employment tribunal hearings has decreased for the third consecutive year. Rita Donaghy, the Acas chair, suggests that reasons for this welcome decline include an increasing awareness and use by employers of the guidance produced by Acas to help employers and employees deal with grievance and disciplinary issues in an effective way.
Acas also plays an important role in conciliating claims so that they are settled or withdrawn before they get to a hearing. Acas offers a helpline, which has received over 700,000 calls, and 97% of callers in recent research said they would use the service again. It has continued to develop its work aimed at preventing employment relations problems, running in the last year more than 2,000 events reaching over 30,000 organisations.
