Employment Tribunals

Employment Tribunals hear cases involving employment law disputes which have not been resolved by other means. While an Employment Tribunal hearing is less formal than a court hearing, the decisions made by Employment Tribunals are legally binding and must be followed.

Cases are usually heard by a panel of three people, called a ‘Tribunal’ – including a legally qualified Employment Judge, and two non-legal or ‘lay’ members who are people who have experience dealing with employment law problems from the point of view of employers or employees.

As Tribunal Judges and non-legal members are completely independent and not part of the government, they make decisions impartially. Their judgements are based on employment law, evidence and arguments put to them.

The non-legal members bring knowledge of workplace procedures to the proceedings. Sometimes the Employment Judge will hear the case alone – for example, to identify the issues in the case that will be dealt with at the full hearing or to deal with financial claims caused by the termination of your employment.

Before making a claim

It’s often better to try to sort out problems with your employer formally before making an Employment Tribunal claim. Speak to your employer – you might have a misunderstanding or may be able to reach an agreement.

If this isn’t possible, try to resolve the problem through your employer’s grievance or disciplinary process – you could also try the help of a third party mediator or conciliator.

There is an Acas Code of Practice that describes a reasonable standard of behaviour for dealing with grievances and disciplinary issues at work. In most kinds of cases Employment Tribunals can decide to award you money if you win your case. The amount of money they award can be increased or decreased by up to 25 per cent if they decide either side has been unreasonable in not following the Code.

Anyone who wishes to take a case to an employment tribunal must use the Acas’ Early Conciliation service – Acas must be notified by completing this online form. Acas will then try to achieve a settlement through conciliation. If, after a month, no deal has been reached, the case will then be able to proceed to an employment tribunal, which will need to be provided with an Acas Early Conciliation Reference Number.

Which claims can be heard by an Employment Tribunal?

An Employment Tribunal can only decide cases that relate to specific rights, so it is important that you know exactly what you are claiming. For example, if you are complaining about not being paid, it’s called ‘unlawful deductions from wages’. If you think your employer treats you less favourably because you are disabled, it’s ‘disability discrimination’. The range of complaints Employment Tribunals deal with includes:

• unfair dismissal (including ‘constructive dismissal’ which happens when an employee resigns because they believe the employer has breached the contract of employment)
• discrimination on the grounds of disability, race, sex, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief
• not being allowed to have someone accompany you to a disciplinary or grievance hearing
• not being consulted in a redundancy situation
• breach of contract
• equal pay

There are many others.

What are the time limits for making an employment tribunal claim?

In most cases, you must make an application within three months of either the date that:

• your employment ended
• the matter you are complaining about happened

An Employment Tribunal will not normally accept claims received after the relevant time limit. In very exceptional circumstances Employment Tribunals can extend this time limit.

Do I need to pay employment tribunal fees?

There are currently no employment tribunal fees.

Although employment tribunal fees were introduced in 2013, they were abolished in 2017 following a ruling by the Supreme Court which concluded that they were unlawful.