The conciliation service Acas is facing a strike by some of its employees after they voted for industrial action in a dispute over a number of issues including workload and resources.



Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) backed walkouts by 83% on a 65.4% turnout.

Talks will be held on Tuesday to try to resolve the dispute, which involves conciliators who deal with potential tribunal cases.

The PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said: “This is a remarkable ballot result. Acas members are by their nature conciliators but they have been pushed to vote for strike action by the failure of management to deal with their genuine concerns.

“There is still time for serious talks to take place on these issues but our members have shown their willingness to take action if management don’t change track.”

The union said it had “major concerns” about issues facing Acas, claiming the service was “severely under-resourced” while the removal of fees for taking claims to a tribunal had increased the number of cases.

An Acas spokesman said: “We are disappointed that some of our staff have voted for strike action. We have consulted extensively with PCS around the issues they have raised and we’re having further talks with them this week.

“We are recruiting to fill vacancies on our helpline and we have created new jobs across Acas’s conciliation service. Over 75% of Acas’s staff will not be taking part in the strike so our offices and key services such as our collective conciliation service and helpline will continue to operate as normal.

“We are working hard to minimise disruption to our individual conciliation service.”