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A raft of changes in the employment tribunal system has been announced in Parliament by the business minister Paul Scully. These changes will enable more hearings to be held online in an effort to deal with the rise in cases, brought about by both the abolition of tribunal fees and the coronavirus pandemic.
The changes are intended to ensure a speedier resolution of cases for businesses and employees and will form part of an £80 million investment for HM Courts and Tribunal Service, involving the recruitment of 1,600 additional staff. This is in addition to a major £142 million investment - announced in July - to speed up technological improvements and to modernise courtrooms.
Business Minister - Paul Scully - said:
“The employment tribunal system has held up very well in the face of an increased caseload and the impacts of COVID-19 – but these changes will boost its capacity further. These reforms will provide further flexibility to the system to ensure workers and businesses receive quick and fair resolutions to disputes, both at this critical time and in the future, too.”
The Ministry of Justice has published data showing 39,093 single claims and 5,915 multiple claims were outstanding in the employment tribunal - and with the backlog increasing week by week, it makes it 26% higher than at the beginning of March.
Other changes being made will allow the judiciary the option to deploy non-employment judges to employment tribunals - and this will take effect as from 8 October 2020 and will refine the Acas early conciliation process and employment tribunal rules to allow greater flexibility in handling minor errors.
Courts minister - Chris Philp - said:
“These changes will provide speedier resolutions for businesses and employees alike, and are the latest step in our plan, backed by £80 million of funding and an additional 1,600 staff, to reduce delays and deliver justice. We are pursuing every available option including increasing the use of technology, rolling out further safety measures to ensure our courts recover from the effects of the pandemic as quickly as possible.”
An Acas spokesperson stated:
“We welcome these changes to early conciliation. One key change includes extending the time period of early conciliation from one month to six weeks. At the moment, Acas has a statutory duty to offer early conciliation for one calendar month and this can only be extended by two weeks if all the sides involved in the dispute agree with their conciliator to this extra time to help resolve the dispute. The change from one month to six weeks will make this process smoother and remove any hurdles to settling cases within six weeks.”
GMR Consulting is an international consultancy and expert witness business based in Europe and North America, founded in 2002. Our team of consultants have extensive experience gained from operating in different business sectors over many decades.
GMR aims to develop long-term, confidential client relationships. Our key strengths include providing up-to-date, detailed and relevant solutions to meet a variety of corporate and legal requirements. GMR clients include some of the world's largest global companies, small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurial boutiques across all industries. Our proven track record means a large percentage of business comes from previous clients and their recommendations.
