Member Article

Government presented with employment tribunal recommendations

The Government has been presented with recommendations to streamline employment tribunal rules.

Mr Justice Underhill presented recommendations with a view to improving understanding and cutting costs across the process.

An early paper sift, was identified as a means to ensure employment judges dismiss any claims where there is no arguable complaint or response, earlier in the process.

He also suggested combining separate case management discussions and pre hearing reviews to ensure there is one consideration of the claim prior to a hearing, which may aid a quicker resolution for some disputes.

‘Presidential guidance’ was also recommended to give all parties in a dispute a much better idea of what to expect from the Tribunal process and equally, what is expected of them.

This measure, Mr Justice Underhill, hopes will help parties to consider alternative dispute resolution, outside of the tribunal process, such as independent mediation.

Elsewhere, a change to the withdrawals process will close cases more efficiently. At the moment, a claimant who wishes to end a dispute must wait for the employer to make an official application before the case is closed.

A streamlined process would mean when one party ends the dispute at tribunal, the other does not have to signal their intention to end the claim.

In presenting his review, Mr Justice Underhill underlined the fact that whilst the fundamentals of a fair procedure for employment tribunals had not changed, it was important that judges had the legal framework to manage cases robustly, and in the most sensible manner for all parties involved.

Employment Relations Minister Norman Lamb said: “We have already announced a host of measures trying to simplify tribunals and make sure that when workplace disputes happen, employers and employees try to find other ways to resolve their problems.

“However, it is only sensible as well that we look at the rules when both parties set foot inside the tribunal and make it simpler for both parties involved.

“Mr Justice Underhill has made a number of sensible, well thought of recommendations which we will consider. I thank him and his working group for their work. We will announce our intentions in due course.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .