BackLatest News and Articles - October 2011
Government plans to reduce number of Employment Tribunal claims
The Chancellor, George Osborne, has recently announced two important changes to the way that claims will be made to the Employment Tribunal. Firstly, the qualifying period to claim unfair dismissal will be increased from one year to two years from the 6th April 2012. Secondly, fees will be introduced for making a claim to the Employment Tribunal.
Full details of the fees have not yet been released but it appears that there will be a fee of £200 when lodging a claim to a Tribunal and a further fee of £1,000 when a hearing is listed. However, fees will be waived for those with no money. Depending upon what the test for a fee waiver is it may have a huge impact on whether the introduction of fees will make any material difference to the vast majority of claims. Most ex-employees would automatically qualify for the waiver if the test is whether somebody is in receipt of income support.
Whilst the introduction of these measures may appear to favour employers, there could be a sting in the tail. If an employee is unable to bring a claim for unfair dismissal because they do not have two years service then they may be more likely to bring a claim alleging discrimination, on the grounds of race, sex, disability, etc, which do not require any qualifying period of employment. That type of claim tends to be considerably more expensive for an employer to defend and can potentially lead to a higher award to an employee.