There remains an increasing amount of Employment Tribunal claims.
It is understood that currently in the Employment Tribunal system there are still around 45,000 open cases for single claim cases, and around 448,000 open cases for multiple claims.
Whilst dealing with our employer clients, we have seen a noticeable increase in employment tribunal claims and the need for these clients to then defend these employment claims.
In practice, we’ve noticed that these employers are facing a wide range of claims from employees or former employees in respect of redundancy, changes to terms and conditions of employment; including pay and benefits, and discrimination. These are all very prevalent.
A pipeline of employment disputes arising from and after the economic cuts relating to Covid-19 times are now making their way through the Tribunal system as employment cases, and further substantial increases of claims are expected.
As an employer, it is important to adhere to your own company’s policies and procedures and also to have an understanding of statutory employment laws, so that your business can implement process lawfully and negate the risk of employee grievances, appeals after dismissal, Acas early conciliation, and Employment Tribunal proceedings. We still see many clients who have not taken specialist employment advice at an early stage of a work-place dispute, or who have failed to adhere to their own policies and procedures and /or have not filed a sufficient Response (defence) upon receipt of an ET1 claim form.
Due to the increasing number of employment claims, the Employment Tribunal system remains overwhelmed. Tribunal applications take a significant period for a decision, there are difficulties listing Preliminary Hearings into the listings timetable, and Final Hearings are sometimes being listed in two years’ time. All of which result in a very protracted time for employer businesses to see the end result, bearing in mind that this may have arisen from a company decision, practice, procedure, or dispute a significant period earlier.
The Government did announce plans to increase the days that judges can sit in the Employment Tribunal and substantial investment made to enable more cases to come before the Judge, and a more efficient Tribunal service. Time will tell!
Farleys Solicitors specialise in employment law & HR for businesses. If your business requires HR & employment law advice, help with an employment dispute, Early ACAS Conciliation and/or Employment Tribunal defence representation, then please contact our experts on 0845 287 0939 or get in touch by email.
