Calls for employment tribunal reform 

A radical overhaul of employment tribunal procedure
and administration is being proposed as HR professionals contend with a rising
tide of claims from disgruntled employees.

There has been a massive hike
in the number of claims accepted by employment tribunals in the past year. The
56 percent rise reported this month (July) by the Tribunal Services for
2009-10, is the highest ever level involving 236,100 claims, up from 151,000. The
soaring claims rate provides the backdrop to mounting concern among employment
lawyers throughout the UK about the consistency of approach, efficiency and
quality of tribunal services.

Three months before the
release of the latest tribunal figures, ELA (Employment Lawyers Association)
embarked on a major survey among its 5,500 members to gain a detailed
grass-roots view of what was happening. The survey results published today
(Thurs) identify key areas of concern and make positive proposals for reforms,
which would help to improve efficiency thus saving time and cost for employers,
claimants, government and advisers alike.

ELA’s proposals acknowledge
the spirit of radical change and budget tightening being pursued by the
coalition government as it seeks to dramatically pare down public sector fixed
and operational costs. At the same time, government consultation around merging
the tribunal and courts services is underway. ELA is concerned that
opportunities to achieve employment tribunal-specific improvements should not
be missed.

Survey poll: ELA received
around a 20 percent response to its survey, when taking into account that some
people replied on behalf of employment teams within firms not just as
individuals. 81 percent of respondents work in private practice. Responses came
from lawyers practising in, and with experience of employment tribunals in, all
English regions, as well as in Scotland and Wales.

Survey headlines:

56 percent of respondents
had experienced a decline in service received from Employment Tribunals
83 percent said the approach
around the country was not consistent
93-94 percent believed users
would benefit from greater consistency from the tribunals and judiciary in
approach, practice and procedure
78 percent agreed that
resourcing issues lay behind many difficulties
68 percent believed the
large volume of equal pay claims had skewed the work of tribunals
77 percent favoured the
creation of specialist courts to deal with equal pay claims
79 percentalso favoured
large-scale pay claims being handled by a single Employment Tribunal office

Problem areas (include)
Short notice of postponement
of substantive hearings
Delays in listing Case
Management Discussions and Pre-Hearing Reviews
Cases going part-heard
because of lack of available time

Main suggestions to achieve
improvements:

Procedure

80 percent – either strongly
or fully support adoption of a menu of standard direction
72 percent – either strongly
or fully support use of a standard agenda for case management discussions (CMD)
to be completed before the CMD is held
61 percent – either strongly
or fully support agreeing a list of issues prior to CMD
77 percent – either strongly
or fully support setting a timetable for disclosure
78 percent – either strongly
or fully support having an agreed timetable and process for exchange of witness
statements

A majority favoured judges
sitting alone on straightforward cases, such as unfair dismissals to ease
overall pressure on the system

Administration

79 percent – either strongly
or fully support improved case tracking/ online access
80 percent – either strongly
or fully support focus on email communication from tribunals to cut down on
phone calls and post
79 percent – either strongly
or fully support using a standard agenda for CMDs and having CMDs by phone

Hearings

60 percent – either strongly
or fully support listing main hearings from Monday to Thursday, reserving
Fridays for CMDs and Pre-Hearing Reviews (as is common practice in the
commercial court)

Only 26 percent – either
strongly or fully supported “out of hours” hearings with

32  percent completely opposed to the idea

There was a 50/50 split on
taking witness statements as read, with 62% being strongly or completely
opposed to the idea of imposing time limits on witnesses reading out statements.

Joanne Owers, Chair of ELA,
who also chaired ELA’s working party on the tribunals service, said: “The
dramatic escalation in claims has put employment tribunals and the tribunals
service under considerable pressure. It is understandable that cracks are
appearing in the system. In addition to highlighting the problem areas commonly
encountered by users, ELA members have indicated very strong support for
practical changes and improvements which they believe will complement the work
being carried out to improve the service and deliver significant benefit to the
employees and employers who use it.”

22 July 2010

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