Articles
Government Seeks to Reduce Tribunal Claims
The government is actively considering two proposals which, if implemented, will be welcomed by employers as potentially decreasing the amount of tribunal claims. The government has recognised that the tribunal system is chronically overworked. Tribunal claims are up by approximately 53% on last year and in a large part this has been caused by the economic conditions which have spurred widespread redundancies.
The first proposal that the government is considering is to increase the period of employment before which an employee can lodge a tribunal claim from one year to two years. The limitation period was previously two years until the incoming Labour government reduced this to one year. Reinstating the two year period may lead to a decrease in the number of tribunal claims, but the proposal is also likely to be controversial and for this reason the plan may not come to fruition.
The other proposal being considered is to introduce employment tribunal fees. At present it is free to issue a claim in the Employment Tribunal. This encourages spurious claims from employees that have nothing to lose. This is radically different to the courts where quite high fees are levied on litigants for issuing a claim and also at successive stages in the proceedings. Court fees also depend upon the value of the claim being issued and could be anything between £30 and £1,530 with additional fees of £200 placed on the allocation of the case and anything up to £1,000 when the case is listed for a hearing. This, together with the fact that the losing party pays costs, deters speculative and weak claims.
In our view, the changes are likely to come to nothing. Similar proposals have been discussed in the past, but the government has backed down. Possibly the government does not have a strong enough conservative majority in parliament to force through the changes, which are likely to be opposed by the bulk of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs. It is also debateable whether or not the proposed changes, if implemented, will lead to any meaningful reduction in the amount of tribunal claims.
For more information on the above or for advice on any other employment issue please contact our employment department on 020 7354 3000 or e-mail employment@colmancoyle.com
Author Profile: David Malamatenios
Date published: 13th January 2011