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6. ISSUING THE CLAIM
Under the Acas statutory Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures employees are encouraged to raise a grievance before issuing any claim. However, you must not delay lodging your claim beyond three months following the disputed act or omission even if your grievance has not been resolved.
To pursue a tribunal claim, you must submit the claim on the specified claim form (ET1) and complete all the required information on the form. If the claim is not submitted on the correct form, or if some of the required information is missing, the claim will not be admitted. The government is consulting on new versions of the ET1 and ET3 forms: www.bis.gov.uk/Consultations/employment-tribunal-rules-review-justice-underhill
Mr May made various tribunal claims against the Council including unfair dismissal and discrimination. He hand-wrote his claims in black ink on the standard claim form (ET1). Mr May was anxious to cram all the details onto the form, so his writing became extremely small and cramped. Also, contrary to the guidance on the first page of the form, he did not use capital letters.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) noted that under Schedule 1, rule 3(2)(a) of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure, a claim can be rejected by the tribunal on the ground that it does not include all the relevant required information. Where a claim is truly illegible in the sense that it is unreadable, it can be said that the relevant details have not been “provided”. However, a tribunal is obliged to apply the “overriding objective” under regulation 3 when making its decisions. The purpose of the overriding objective is to ensure cases are dealt with justly. Mr May’s claim was readable without a magnifying glass and was accepted.
May v Greenwich Council UKEAT/0102/10
The claim form can be obtained from Jobcentres, most advice agencies and benefit offices, or can be downloaded, together with guidance, from the Employment page of the Ministry of Justice at: www.justice.gov.uk/forms/hmcts/employment
The form ET1 can be submitted online, by fax or by post. If sending it by fax or by post you will need to ensure that you are sending it to the correct employment tribunal office. This is determined by the postcode of your normal workplace and can be found on the Employment page of the Ministry of Justice website or by phoning its enquiry line on: 0845 795 9775 (minicom 0845 757 3722).
In Scotland, all claims should be sent to the Employment Tribunal Scotland (ETS) in Glasgow. In Northern Ireland, claims are sent to the Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal office in Belfast.
If identical claims are being brought by more than one claimant, it may be possible to just submit one document — each claimant will obviously still need to include his/her full name and address. However, issuing separate claims and applying for them to be joined may be more straightforward.
In his 2012 review of tribunal procedures, Lord Justice Underhill recommended that under draft rule 31, where there are multiple claims, tribunals would be able to identify a lead case. The decision in the lead case would then automatically be binding on those other cases, without the need for a further hearing to establish this. A party would retain the ability to apply to have directions or decisions arising from the lead case, disapplied. The government, which has accepted Lord Justice Underhill’s recommendations, commenced a consultation about the proposals in September 2012.