Overview
Central Arbitration Committee
Quick Reference
(CAC)
The CAC was created by the Employment Relations Act 1975 in the UK and is the latest in a series of standing national arbitration bodies which dates back to the early years of the twentieth century. On its foundation, the CAC consisted of an independent chair and deputy chair with two panels of side members representing employers and trade unions. Its function was to provide a range of arbitration services, but these were whittled away by successive Conservative governments until by the mid-1990s the CAC was restricted to providing voluntary arbitration in trade disputes and adjudicating in disputes over disclosure of information for the purpose of collective bargaining. From being a relatively marginal body within British industrial relations, however, the CAC has assumed a much more significant role. The Employment Relations Act 1999 charged the CAC with determining applications for statutory trade union recognition and endowed the CAC with considerable powers for interpreting and applying the regulations governing statutory recognition.
