An Employment Tribunal
If you’ve experienced a problem at work that you’re unable to sort out with your employer, you might need to make a claim to an Employer Tribunal. Employment Tribunals deal with claims brought against employers by employees.
Claims can relate to unfair and wrongful dismissals, discrimination, equal pay, and wage deductions.
You don’t need to pay a fee to make a claim to an Employment Tribunal, but employees must contact Acas first to try and resolve the dispute through early conciliation.
Employment Law services for employees:
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How Loch Law can help
Our specialist solicitors have many years’ experience providing employment law tribunal representation across a wide variety of cases. If you believe you have a claim against your employer, we can provide support.
As part of our Employment Tribunal service, we will explore alternatives to a claim, such as negotiating a settlement or mediation. If we believe your best course of action is to take a claim to an Employment Tribunal, we will advise you on the best way to present your case, and maximise your chances of winning.
Examples of the types of dispute we can help with:
- Unfair dismissal;
- Wrongful dismissal;
- Discrimination (race, sex, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age, maternity or paternity leave/pay);
- Equal pay;
- Deductions from wages.
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What is an employment tribunal?
The purpose of an Employment Tribunal is to make decisions about employment disputes. Employees have various employment rights which are protected by law. If an employer breaches these rights, an employee can take them to an Employment Tribunal to seek compensation or another form of remedy, for example reinstatement.
An employer can be taken to an Employment Tribunal regarding a number of issues, including discrimination at work, unfair dismissal, or issues relating to wages or redundancy payments. The employee does not have to pay a fee.
Can issues be resolved before going to an Employment Tribunal?
Going to tribunal can be a costly and stressful experience, and so it is important to try and solve any problems before it gets to this stage. If an employee does wish to make a claim against an employer, Acas (a government-funded body whose job is to help with workplace disputes) will offer to try and resolve the issue between the two parties, a process known as early conciliation.
Why should I send my claim to Acas first?
Before any claim is issued, you have to make an application to Acas first to see if their conciliators can settle the claim. This process is important because:
- If you want to bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal, it is a procedural requirement that you have already notified Acas and obtained an Early Conciliation Certificate. Without the Certificate, the Tribunal will not accept your claim.
- By starting an Early Conciliation , you ‘freeze’ the time limit to then bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal. This time limit resumes once an Early Conciliation Certificate is issued, and can sometimes be extended but this is not guaranteed.
- While you are within your rights to start and end an Early Conciliation immediately (i.e. simply to obtain an Early Conciliation Certificate), the process can sometimes be an effective way to reach a settlement.
Are there time limits for making a claim?
For most claims, you have 3 months less 1 day from when the event happened you are complaining about, to start early conciliation. You’ll then have at least a month to make a claim to the Tribunal but you must start the Acas process within that 3 months less a day period. If you are claiming redundancy pay or equal pay, you have 6 months less 1 day to start early conciliation.
If you’re making more than one claim, you might have different time limits for each one. For example, if you’re claiming unfair dismissal and redundancy pay, you’ll have 3 months less 1 day for the unfair dismissal claim and 6 months less 1 day for the redundancy pay claim.
In some very limited circumstances, such as if you’ve been dismissed for whistleblowing, you can make a claim to get paid until a Tribunal decides your case. You must make this claim within 7 days of being dismissed.
What types of claims can an Employment Tribunal decide?
An Employment Tribunal can only deal with claims from someone working in Great Britain against an employer that’s based, or carries out business, in Great Britain.
An Employment Tribunal can only decide certain kinds of work-related claims. These include:
- Parental rights at work - like maternity or paternity rights;
- Rights to pay - like unpaid wages, notice or holiday pay, or not being paid the National Minimum Wage;
- Losing your job;
- Discrimination;
- Breach of contract;
- Rights to time off work.
