July 2012 employment update
Fees in the Employment Tribunal
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been consulting on a proposal to introduce fees in the Employment Tribunal. Currently, there are no fees payable by an aggrieved individual who wants to bring a Tribunal claim.
The MoJ has now published its response to the consultation and these changes are due to come into effect in the summer of 2013. The proposed fees which will be payable by claimants are:
- Level 1 claims (generally for sums due on termination of employment e.g. unpaid wages, payment in lieu of notice and redundancy payments) – £160 to issue the claim; £250 to set the claim down for a hearing.
- Level 2 claims (pretty much everything else) – £250 to issue claim; £950 for the hearing fee.
In addition, there will also be fees for applications to dismiss a claim which has been settled (£60), for an employer who wants to issue a counterclaim (£160) and where judicial mediation takes place (£600).
There will also be a £400 issue fee and £1,200 hearing fee for appeals to the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
There will be a remission system whereby people’s ability to pay fees will be assessed leading to fees being fully or partially waived for those on low incomes. Given this is likely to apply a high proportion of people who want to pursue a claim it remains to be seen to what extent the new system will discourage people from bringing claims.
The MoJ has indicated that the purpose of the fee regime is to encourage parties to settle disputes rather than go to a full hearing. The hope is that this will lower the cost of the Tribunal system to the tax payer. Given that it is also likely to mean people think twice before issuing a claim this looks like good news for employers.
For the full consultation response see: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/et-fee-charging-regime-cp22-2011
Employment Tribunal Statistics 2011-2102
The Ministry of Justice has now published its annual Employment Tribunal statistics for the period from 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012. Key points are:
- The total number of claims issued fell to 186,300, a reduction of 15% on the previous year (down from 236,000 in 2009/10, to 218,000 in 2010/11). This is mainly due to a reduction in the number of public sector equal pay claims. The actual number of individual claims only fell by 2%. The introduction of fees in the Employment Tribunal, proposed mandatory ACAS pre-claim conciliation and the increase of the qualifying period of employment for unfair dismissal claims to 2 years may well cause this trend to continue in the future.
- The number of unfair dismissal claims fell from 47,900 to 46,300.
- The number of age discrimination claims fell from 10,800 to 3,700 and sex discrimination claims fell from 18,300 to 6,800.
- Disability discrimination claims increased slightly from 7,200 to 7,700.
- Relatively few sexual orientation discrimination (610) and religion or belief claims (940) were commenced.
For further detail see: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/statistics/tribs-stats/ts-annual-stats-2011-12.pdf
If you need help with any employment law issue get in touch with Integra at contact@integralegal.co.uk