The tribunal panel


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. However, many tribunal claims are now heard by an employment judge sitting alone instead of a full tribunal. These include all claims for unpaid wages, holiday, redundancy payments, interim relief and since April 2012, all claims for unfair dismissal and appeals to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). In some other jurisdictions, a case can be heard by a judge alone if the parties agree. 


It is worth noting that while a claim for unfair dismissal can be heard by a judge sitting alone even if it is trade union-related, a claim for trade union detriment (section 146, TULRCA) must be heard by a full tribunal panel (Birring v Michael Rogers and Another t/a Charity Link [2015] UKEAT/0388/14/RN). (See Chapter 5: trade union victimisation).


An employment judge has the discretion to order that a claim be heard by a full panel of members, but in practice full panel hearings are increasingly rare. In general, where a claim is for both unfair dismissal and trade union detriment, the discretion should normally be exercised in favour of a full panel (Birring, above). 


The loss of experienced lay members, especially in unfair dismissal claims, is generally viewed as a retrograde step, moving ever further away from the tribunal’s originally intended role as an industrial jury.