Employment Tribunals

An Employment Tribunal is a court that only hears cases about employment and although it is a lot less formal than a High Court or other legal court the judgements made there are just as legally enforceable. A tribunal will not give out advice but sits in judgement in disputes between two sides usually an employee or groups of employees and an employer.

What Can the Tribunal Do?

The tribunal will have a panel of three people sitting as judge and jury, one, the chair, will be a legally qualified person while the others are experienced business people. Employment Tribunals can hear cases about many different employment matters such as accusations of discrimination, unfair dismissal and various unlawful practices. There is a (long) list of areas where the service has jurisdiction on the Employment Tribunal's website

Going to an Employment Tribunal really is a last resort in a workplace dispute. Both sides bringing a dispute before one will be expected to have gone through informal attempts to resolve the dispute and internal procedures, either grievance or disciplinary, before resorting to a tribunal.

Applying for a Tribunal Hearing

To kick the process off a form ET1 is required, which can be obtained from a Jobcentre Plus, an Employment Tribunal office or their website, or ACAS, The Advisory, Conciliatory and Arbitration Service. Information about the employee and the employer as well as the nature of the dispute goes on the form, which is then sent to the central office for the Employment Tribunal service. A copy of it form is then sent to the other side of the dispute within 28days. Any documentation that is going to be presented at the hearing needs to be sent to the other side at least a week before the hearing. It's worth noting that there's usually a three month time limit, after the incident in question, to register an application although this can be lengthened in exceptional circumstances.

Assuming the claim is a valid one, which is to say that it is something that the Employment Tribunal Service agrees that they should be looking at, they will set the date for the hearing. Both sides should take legal advice and consider bringing legal representation to the hearing. The hearing itself doesn't coast anything but having legal representation certainly will. Trade union members may well get legal representation provided by the union free of charge, as long as the union supports the member's claim. Either side can also produce witnesses, and if any do not want to attend they can be forced to by the tribunal.

If the employee wins the case then the tribunal will usually order reinstatement (if the employee had been sacked) and award compensation designed to cover any lost earnings or potential earnings, for example if the dispute had been about being passed over for promotion. There is only further compensation for hurt feelings in discrimination cases. If the employee loses, they can appeal, but the appeal can only be about the process of the court or points of law that were incorrectly applied, technical faults in the running of the hearing, in other words. It is not possible to appeal against the verdict purely because it is not agreed with.

Where to Find Out More

ACAS have information on their website and telephone helplines, and the Citizens Advice Bureau can help, in particular with filling in the ET1 form. They can also help with finding a solicitor in the right area who specialises in employment law. The Employment Tribunal service itself has an informative website and there is further information on the government's direct.gov.uk website. Employers can get advice from the Government's BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) website or that of their local Business Link organisation.