An Unusual Phone Call From ACAS

I have been away from my desk for a time, both on holiday and business, and hence have not added to my Blog; it is nice to be back but the story I have to add is concerning.

One of our clients has recently telephoned advising he received a call from ACAS - a very unusual call. The conciliator said they had been approached by an ex-employee of the company, someone they had recently dismissed for gross misconduct. The conciliator said he was now thinking of taking the company to Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal. The conciliator wanted to know how much the employer would offer for the employee to not submit a claim.
The employer was horrified and frankly so was I. This sounded like blackmail.
I rang the conciliator who explained that this was now one of the roles ACAS was required to carry out, the objective being to prevent Tribunal claims and reduce costs to the tax payer.
This may reduce the cost to the tax payer but to me it appears to be encouraging ridiculous claims from employees. Soon every employee will think it is their right to receive a pay-off even if they have been dismissed quite fairly. This culture is not good for the morals of the community - this is my view.
To encourage reason and common sense we need to bring some balance into Tribunal proceedings. The law allows Tribunal judges to award costs against an employee when it is an obviously ridiculous claim, and yet they very rarely use this power. Until they do the balance will remain heavily in favour of the employee and as long as that is the case employees will continue to try and use the system to make money.

I am voting against the new ACAS conciliation service - how many of you agree?