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Employment tribunals ‘broken’?

employment tribunals ‘broken’?

7 January 2011

This week the media has been awash with claims that the tribunal system is weighted entirely in the favour of employees, further fuelled by the Director General of the CBI’s comments that the system was ‘broken’ on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme.

The increased number of tribunal claims faced by employers has led some business leaders to call for claimants to be required to pay to lodge a claim. Figures of £30 to £500, have been mentioned, with the fee being returned if the claim was successful.

It remains to be seen whether the government will bow to this pressure. However, it seems unlikely that a barrier on workers’ rights would be imposed in the field of employment claims by enforcing an upfront payment to seek to redress alleged injustice at the time they have lost their job or feel that they have been discriminated against.

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Heather Mitchell

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