Acas predicting increase in unrest in the workplace

However, Peter McGee, the Acas area director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said the total number of collective disputes referred to Acas in the region during the last financial year had remained "steady" at 96, which is around 10 per cent of the UK total.

There had been 97 disputes handled by Acas in the region the previous year.

Fifty per cent of the large scale disputes referred to Acas in Yorkshire last year related to pay, and 20 per cent were linked to terms and conditions of employment.

An Acas spokesman said the remaining 30 per cent were made up of redundancy, discipline and dismissal cases. Seventy per cent of Acas cases in Yorkshire and the Humber related to the private sector.

Mr McGee said: "We've seen more claims for trade union recognition than in previous years, which is an indication that people are joining the union and seeing it as a kind of insurance policy against the downturn in the economy."

Altogether, 15 out of the 96 cases handled by Acas in Yorkshire and the Humber last year related to collective recognition.

Mr McGee added: "Recession in the private sector did not produce a dramatic increase in the amount of strike action. It remained fairly static.

"When you look at the level of the cuts public sector organisations are planning for, you have to say there is scope for potential conflict to increase quite significantly.

"It's going to take an awful lot of hard work by union representatives, managers and HR professionals.

"ACAS is here to support that process to try and minimise the level and extent of those disputes."

Mr McGee said there had been an increase in the number of cases related to workplace discrimination.

He believed this could be partly due to the large number of anti-discrimination laws that had been introduced in the last decade.

Acas, which was founded in 1975 and aims to improve employment relations, has 77 out of its 900 staff in Yorkshire. It has a national budget of 44.48m.