Appealing to the Employment Appeal Tribunal

Appeals are from the employment tribunal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

Only questions of law can be appealed, not questions of fact. The only exception is if a tribunal’s ruling is “perverse”, in other words, where no reasonable tribunal could have reached the same conclusion after hearing the same evidence. Appeals on this basis rarely succeed.

The reason why it is so hard to challenge a tribunal's conclusions about the facts of a case is that tribunals listen to the witnesses giving their evidence and being questioned on it (cross-examination). Appeal courts do not, so they cannot assess first-hand whether someone is telling the truth. For the same reason, parties normally cannot raise new evidence or points of law on appeal that were not raised at the tribunal hearing.

Appeals go to the EAT in England, Wales and Scotland (which has a separate EAT). In Northern Ireland, appeals from industrial tribunals go to the Court of Appeal.

Any appeal must be lodged within 42 days of the tribunal sending out its decision, not the date it is received (Gdynia American Shipping Lines v Chelminski [2004] IRLR 725). This is a very strict deadline and extensions are exceptionally rare.Anyone contemplating an appeal should get legal advice as soon as possible. Only around 4% of employment tribunal rulings are appealed, of which only about a quarter are successful.