UK Employment Law\ Employers\ Tribunals
Employers have no protection at Tribunals.
According to a recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development it is claimed that 55% that took part in the survey had been recently taken to an employment law tribunal on the basis of loose claims and 69% of the businesses surveyed reported that some employees claiming unfair dismissal also claimed discrimination in the hope that the compensation for their un-fair dismissal claim would be increased. Due to current UK employment law, claims for discrimination have no upper limit.
An employee relations adviser stated that the whole of the employment law tribunal system is out of date and broken down and suggested that the Government needs to overhaul the tribunal system to avoid for claims for un-fair dismissal that are coupled with discrimination. The Government have recently proposed increasing the time served for an employee before they have any employment rights to bring a claim to the tribunal from one year's service to two year's service.
More problems could be faced by employers who are faced with employment law tribunals though with further Government proposals for reform of the tribunal system to include a contribution from the employer for half of the total award of the compensation which is in addition to the actual award itself with a limit of £5,000.00 which is reduced by half if employers pay the fee within 21 days of the tribunal decision. The average cost of defending a claim by employers is around £4,000.00 and with tribunal claims rising to 236,000 in 2011 which should a rise of over 59% from 2009 according to Government figures.
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