The employment tribunal system

Most employment claims are heard by employment tribunals, although some cases must be brought in the ordinary civil courts (the County Court or High Court) — principally breach of contract claims where the employment contract is on-going, and applications for injunctions. This is explained in more detail in Chapter 3: Contracts — Other remedies.

Employment tribunals (industrial tribunals in Northern Ireland) were originally set up under the Industrial Training Act 1964 as an informal, accessible, quick and inexpensive way of resolving employment disputes, although they have become increasingly legalistic.

Employment tribunals have their own rules of procedure. These are set out in the amended Employment Tribunals Act 1996 and the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2004. Following a review by Lord Justice Underhill, the tribunal rules are to be simplified in a number of ways, mostly of interest only to lawyers. The changes are expected to be introduced in summer 2013.

In April 2011, the Employment Tribunal Service merged with HM Court Service to become part of the Ministry of Justice HM Courts and Tribunals Service. Information about bringing a tribunal claim can now be found on the website of the Ministry of Justice at: www.justice.gov.uk/tribunals/employment

A full tribunal consists of a legally qualified chairperson (called an Employment Judge) and two lay members, one drawn from a panel of employer representatives and one from a panel of employee representatives. Since April 2012, more types of claim can be heard by an Employment Judge sitting alone, including, in particular, unfair dismissal cases and appeals to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). Although a Judge has discretion to order that an unfair dismissal case should be heard by a full panel, in practice, a full panel hearing is likely to become increasingly rare.

An employment tribunal’s jurisdiction is based on statute. In other words, if there is no legal statute giving the tribunal the power to deal with a particular issue, it is not allowed to consider it. The precise limits or boundaries of the tribunal’s jurisdiction are set out in different statutes.

Employment tribunals hear a wide range of claims, including claims for unfair dismissal, unlawful deduction from wages, redundancy pay, discrimination, equal pay, claims relating to parental rights, claims arising from the Working Time Regulations, claims based on unlawful blacklisting and most trade union rights.

An employment tribunal can also hear some claims by employees for breach of the employment contract, but only where the breach arises or is outstanding on dismissal (See Chapter 3). A contract claim in an employment tribunal is subject to a cap of £25,000.

An employer who wants to make a claim against an employee, for example for breach of confidentiality or of a restrictive covenant, must bring the claim in a civil court not an employment tribunal.