Employment tribunal fees scrapped - could you be affected?

If you’ve been experiencing problems at work and have been put off taking your employer to a tribunal because of the cost of tribunal fees, you could benefit from last week’s Supreme Court ruling to scrap tribunal fees with immediate effect.

The court ruled that the Government had acted unlawfully when it introduced fees in 2013 for claims such as redundancy, unfair dismissal and discrimination at work. The landmark decision was handed down on 26 July 2017 in the case of R (Unison) v Lord Chancellor (2017).

The charges - up to £1,200 - led to a 70% drop in the number of tribunals in England and Wales and were condemned as impeding access to justice.

The immediate effect is that fees cease to be payable in employment tribunals and fees paid in the past (amounting to around £32 million) must be repaid by the Government.

Employees have 3 months (less one day) from the date an incident took place to take their employer to a tribunal.

If you’ve been effected by discrimination or other problems at work, contact our employment law specialists Jon Dyson, James Hodgson or Maureen Cawthorn on 01422 339 600.