Acas Chief Executive, Anne Sharp has set out her views on the workplace challenges for 2014. Sharp believes that with organisations coming out of the recession, the coming year will continue to hold challenges for workplace relations in three key areas: (1) There will be a greater focus on alternate forms of dispute resolution through the new Acas Early Conciliation service, as from April anyone thinking of making a tribunal claim will need to contact Acas first for the opportunity to resolve the dispute before a claim can be presented; (2) Calls to the Acas Helpline have shown that there's a lot of uncertainty around zero hours contracts which leads to confusion and the Government's consultation on zero hours contracts which will look at improving guidance on their use will be very welcome; (3) On the pay front, while the economy is showing signs of recovery, pay may well loom large on the employment relations agenda in 2014 as workers look to catch up for past pay restraint.
 

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