Good News for Employers

At last there is some good news for employers to help reduce the volume of claims made to the Employment Tribunal and to help sift out vexatious claimants. George Osborne has made the following proposals:

1. The qualifying period for unfair dismissal will be increased from one year to two years with effect from 1 April 2012. This means that employers will have an extra year to weed out poor performing or difficult employees without the fear of an unfair dismissal claim (unless of course one of the automatic unfair dismissal grounds applies). It will also help reduce the number of unfair dismissal claims at the tribunal.

2. Fees will be introduced for claimants to submit their claims at the employment tribunal. From the information currently available, the fee structure is as set out below (note that this is not definite as yet):

- fee of £250 to lodge a claim;
- further fee of £1,000 payable by claimant when the hearing is listed;
- higher fees if the claim is for over £30,000;
- fee to be refunded if claimant wins, and forfeited if they lose
- fees to be waived for those with no money

The waiver of fees may well apply to those on income support (which would mean that most ex-employees will automatically qualify for the waiver given that they are likely to be out of work). It is also worth noting that the tribunal fees are substantially greater than the fees in the small claims court and it is therefore probable that these fees will be reduced during further consultation.

Overall the proposals are however good news for employers and should help reduce the volume of claims.

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