Employment Tribunals – Proposals for change and new Fee Structures

We recently reported to you that the Government are proposing a shake up of the Employment Tribunal System, to include, but not limited to; charging fees to commence Employment Tribunal claims and increasing the qualifying period for employees claiming unfair dismissal from 1 year to 2 years.

Although no final decisions have yet been made on 14th December 2011 the Ministry Of Justice launched a consultation regarding the implementation of fees in the Employment Tribunals. This consultation is seeking views on two different fee charging structures which could be adopted.

The first structure proposes an issue fee and a hearing fee, the amount of which would depend on the nature of the claim and whether it was an individual claim or a claim with multiple claimants. For example, for an individual claiming unfair dismissal, the employee would pay an issue fee of £200 in order to start their claim and a hearing fee of £1,000 before the final hearing date.

The second structure proposes only an issue fee and no hearing fee. The level of fee would depend on the amount being claimed. For example if an employee claimed unfair dismissal and stated their claim to be worth less than £30,000 then the issue fee would be £500 and for a claim stated to be worth more than £30,000 the fee would be £1,750.

Although these figures may appear scary to many employees and may cause people to consider that they cannot afford to bring claims, both structures propose a range of application specific fees and would adopt a similar scheme to that in the County Courts permitting those from low income families to claim fee remissions relating to the fees.

Either scheme would see the Respondent (Employer) having to repay to the employee the cost of the issue and/or hearing fee if the employee was successful in their claims.

The proposals have been suggested in the hope of reducing the number of unfounded and speculative claims brought by employees.

Although these consultations are currently taking place there are no guarantees or clear indications about what the future will hold for Employment Tribunal claims. Needless to say change is on the horizon and everyone within the Employment Sector will be watching this space.


If you are struggling with Employment issues and think you would benefit from legal advice please do not hesitate to contact a member of our Employment Team.