Analysis of Employment Tribunals: Is It Fit for Purpose?

"Employment tribunals were established under the Industrial Training Act 1964. They were previously referred to as Industrial Tribunals, but their name was changed by s1 of the Employment Rights (Dispute Resolution) Act 1998, which took effect on 1 August 1998"(J.Nairns,2011,p.6). Now, HM Courts & Tribunals Service which is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, supervise employment tribunals. Employment tribunals are constituted on the basis of region. In England and Wales, there are 11 regional offices of the Employment Tribunals(ROETs). There is Regional Office in each region …show more content…
Government has launched certain reforms in the procedures of employment tribunals to reduce backlog and weed out weak cases, the reforms are as following: Pre-hearing review, tribunals can award up to ₤10,000 (this figure has increased to ₤20,000 on 6th April 2012) against losing parts, the Employment Act 2002. The Pre-hearing procedure increases costs employees need to pay, which effectively reduce backlog while may dissuade those with genuine claim from bringing a claim since it is may be too expensive for those dismissed employees. The opportunity for tribunals to raise costs to losing side, this will reduce weak cases but also dissuade employees from being brought actions. The Employment Act 2002 also increase the costs people need to pay if they want to bring a claim to employment tribunal. For unfair dismissal cases by the Employment Rights(Dispute Resolution) Act 1998, power of running a statutory arbitration scheme which as an alternative to the employment tribunals was given by ACAS(Gillian Phillips & Karen Scott, 2005). Rather than to an Employment Tribunal hearing, parties in the cases of unfair dismissal now are possible to agree to take their cases to arbitration. "Since the introduction of SI 2004/753 parties may agree to the appointment by ACAS of an arbitrator who will decide whether the dismissal was fair or