Employment Tribunal Changes

At last we see some good news for Employers to help reduce the number of tribunal claims.

1. From 1st April 2012 the qualifying period for unfair dismissal will be increased from one year to two years. This means that employers will have an extra year to weed out poor performing or difficult employees without the fear of an unfair dismissal claim (unless of course one of the automatic unfair dismissal grounds applies or there are other claims such as discrimination).

2. Fees will be introduced for claimants to submit their claims at the employment tribunal. From the information currently available, the fee structure is as follows although it is likely that this will change due to the suggested fees being substantially greater than the fees in the small claims court:

fee of £250 to submit a claim;
further fee of £1,000 payable by the claimant when the hearing is listed;
higher fees if the claim is for over £30,000;
fee to be refunded if claimant wins, and forfeited if they lose
fees to be waived for those with no money, for example if on income support (which realistically would mean that most ex-employees will automatically qualify for the waiver given that they are likely to be out of work!)

Overall however the proposals are good news and should help reduce the volume of claims.