The Business Secretary Vince Cable and the Chancellor George Osborne this week announced changes to bringing unfair dismissal claims which could save employers across the country, nearly £6 million per year.
As from 6th April 2012 the qualifying period for bringing an unfair dismissal claim in the Employment Tribunal will be increased from 1 year to 2 years.
The Tribunals were originally set up to ensure that there was a cheap and relatively easy way for employees to bring claims against their employers without the need to go to the courts. The current government now intend to bring in charges to the Tribunal which will make them expensive and out of the reach of some.
When a claim is lodged in the Tribunal an upfront fee of £250 will need to be paid and a further £1,000 will be payable where a hearing is listed. If the damages sought are going to be in excess of £30,000 then the fees will be higher.
Although the fees will be refunded where a claim is successful, if a person remains out of work then the costs are likely to put a significant number of people off bringing a claim, even if their claim is not vexatious. Potentially the announcements could mean that employees are going to be unable to enforce their rights but it was also announced that those with no money would have the fee waived. There is very little detail at this stage as to who would qualify for the fees to be waived although perhaps the most likely way of assessing this is that those receiving income support will qualify.
The reality of the announcements are that although employers will have a longer period of time within which to see whether an employee is performing appropriately, they should be very wary that there may well be an increase in the number of discrimination claims on the basis that there will still be no qualifying period for such claims.
As always with such announcements more details will follow.
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