One year after the Supreme Court ruled Employment Tribunal fees unlawful, thousands of claimants are still awaiting outstanding fees for their Employment Tribunal claims. This is a major issue, as the Ministry of Justice announced that these claims are on the rise with 9,252 claimants filing complaints against their employees, which is more than double the amount between October 2013 and June 2017.  

Currently, only £6.6 million out of £33 million has been refunded, which means 80% costs are still outstanding, which does not align with the government’s intentions back in October 2017, where they vowed to repay all fees immediately through their official refund programme.

Commenting on the refund programme, a representative from HM Courts and Tribunals Service stated that:

Anonymity currently remains conflicted in the early life of employment tribunals especially in relation to more delicate circumstances, such as sexual harassment in the workplace. Although when it does not involve criminal proceedings, anonymity is used to protect the reputation of all parties.

In some circumstances, employers facing an employment tribunal can claim for an anonymity order to protect their organisation. However, they must give valid reasoning for waving their right to anonymity and avoiding open justice.

Facing an employment tribunal claim can be problematic for employers, due to the negative press they may receive as a result, which may impact the organisations reputation, which is why applying for anonymity may be something to consider.

The question of whether an employer grievance should disrupt disciplinary proceedings is one up for debate, as the answer is not definitive. As all cases are unique, therefore it is not all grievances cause disruption to disciplinary proceedings , as there may be some proceedings that are affected by a grievance, whereas others are not.

In some cases, the Employment Tribunal may decide to suspend proceedings to allow the employer to attend to any grievance issues raised by the employee.

On other occasions, the disciplinary procedure can run simultaneously with the grievance procedure, as usually the grievance is raised as a response to the disciplinary proceedings brought against the employee. Therefore, the grievance can be dealt with in the disciplinary hearing.

The impact on employers regarding Employment Tribunal fees ending.

As of July 26^th 2017, the Supreme Court ruled Employment Tribunal fees as unlawful, but what does this mean for employers?

The ruling has visibly increased the amount of Employment Tribunal cases, with the Ministry of Justice publishing Tribunal statistics from October to December 2017 showing a 90% increase in the number of single employment tribunal claims.