Latest figures reveal that the number of new employment claims being started has very significantly reduced. Now some will argue that this is a good thing and that the pendulum had swung too much in favour of the employee resulting in claims being pursued in almost any circumstances and leaving employers at risk of at worst significant awards and at best substantial costs to defend ill conceived claims.
The argument was that the risk of these claims was deterring employers from increasing their workforce and was depressing the job market. There may be some merit in this view; however, there is now a growing feeling that things have swung back too far the other way. The extension of time before the right to a standard unfair dismissal claim can be pursued has been increased from one year to two.
In addition we have the ponderously slow speed at which some Tribunal offices progress claims which can deter even the most enthusiastic claimant and more importantly the introduction of significant Tribunal fees which make many claims simply beyond the financial reach of many.
Tribunals were originally intended to provide a low cost, user friendly, jargon free structure to administer fast and understandable justice without the pomp and procedure which sometimes has accompanied the more formal court process. This is still the case in some areas of their work but due to underfunding and overcharging, Employment Tribunals appear to have lost their way.
If anything is an indictment of the current position it is that many employees with employment claims are now choosing to pursue them through the County Court small claim procedure rather than in the Tribunal because the fees are considerably cheaper. It would appear that the relationship between Courts and Tribunals has reversed and if the Tribunal system can no longer deliver the benefits which it was set up to achieve, then something has gone very seriously wrong and needs to be addressed.
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