Member Article

79% decrease in employment tribunal claimants the government's fault says Leeds law firm

The significant fall in employment tribunals announced by the Government reflects the impact that the introduction of fees has had on claimants’ willingness to bring claims, according to the Leeds’ Irwin Mitchell.

The Ministry of Justice has today published the quarterly employment tribunal statistics for October to December 2013 and compared with the same period in 2012, there has been a 79% drop in the number of applications lodged.

Commenting on the latest figures, Glenn Hayes, an employment partner at Irwin Mitchell in Leeds, said: “We saw an influx of claims lodged in late June and July last year prior to the introduction of fees.

“Since then we have noticed a large decrease in the number of claims being lodged, although the cases that are being pursued at Tribunal have become increasingly complex.

“There are a number of other factors in addition to the introduction of fees that could be influencing these latest numbers.

“One key reason could be the increase to two years of the qualification period for unfair dismissal.

“There has also been a reduction – or at least levelling off – in the number of multiple equal pay claims, particularly in the public sector. There has also been the change to the compensation cap for unfair dismissal.

“This probably means that employers are less exposed than before and more able to resolve disputes cheaper and therefore without the involvement of the Tribunal.

“Employees may also be trying to resolve their disputes in other ways. ACAS already offers a pre-claim conciliation service which is free to use and in May it will become compulsory for aggrieved employees to contact ACAS under its early conciliation scheme before they are able to issue a claim.

“It is also possible, that employees with contract claims are using the small claims courts to resolve disputes as the fees are significantly cheaper than those payable in the Employment Tribunal.”

National trade union, Unison, has previously argued that the introduction of tribunal fees is unlawful and claimed that the rate of the fees is prohibitive to most employees earning an average wage.

They say tribunal fees impact on an individual’s right to a fair hearing both under UK and European law.

Commenting on the impact on this high profile case, Glenn said: “The Unison appeal is likely to be heard later this year and no doubt they will be scrutinising the figures to see whether there is evidence to support their contention that introducing fees indirectly discriminates against protected groups, such as women, ethnic minorities and those who are disabled.

“Earlier this year the court said that it could not rule on whether fees are unlawful because there was insufficient evidence available to it at that time. Unison will be hopeful that these results provide the robust evidence the court requires.

“It is now possible that employees who are aware of these changes might be persuaded to join a union or add Legal Expense Insurance to their home insurance policies to ensure that they can still pursue legitimate claims.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .