Employment Tribunals are a costly, time consuming, emotional experience for employers and that is just if you win and if you lose, it can be expensive.

 

Employment Tribunals are a costly, time consuming, emotional experience for employers and that is just if you win and if you lose, it can be expensive.

Last year there were 189,000 applications to a tribunal and this is up by a third on previous years. In these tough times employees quite often look at going to a tribunal as a reasonable ‘punt’ the costs to them are minimal and there is a potential to make some money.

Average awards last year for unfair dismissal, race discrimination and sex discrimination are £7974, £14,049 and £10,052 respectively. The average overall cost including time both in preparation and on the day to an employer can be up to £20,000.

The rising costs of tribunals are attributed to a lot of different issues. Employees quite often know more about the law than you do, they surf the net and sometimes come up with inaccurate ideas which nevertheless they insist on taking to the tribunal. Employment law itself is becoming more complex especially in the areas of TUPE (The Transfer of Undertakings -Protection of Employment) and wage comparison exercises and some disability claims which lead to tribunals lasting longer.

 The best way to avoid tribunals is to be prepared.

Consider the following

1. Regularly review all employment policies and procedures to make sure they comply with existing legislation
2. Communicate ,communicate communicate with your employees to reduce  uncertainty and avoid surprises
3. Resolve grievances as soon as they arise use the formal grievance system
4. If you have a disciplinary issue make sure the proper procedures were followed.
5. If you have a redundancy situation follow the 3 step procedure before you make anyone redundant
6. For disability situations make sure you can be seen to have taken all reasonable steps to address the situation
7. Use mediation and conciliation where appropriate

Mediation which is used in other civil law claims can be especially useful in preventing an issue from escalating into a full blown tribunal hearing. You can use external mediators or train one of your staff in mediation techniques. It is a challenge to go down this route it does involve both sides really wanting to find a solution, it can also be used to negotiate an exit strategy for a disgruntled employee.

The government is giving ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) a further £37m over the next 3 years for additional mediators to be trained to act in this area. I am also attending workplace conflict resolution workshops. Mediation will be encouraged to resolve workplace disputes to lessen the burden on the  employment tribunal system.

Despite all this if you are asked to appear at a tribunal don’t be scared. Engage someone who is competent to represent you and if you can’t reach an agreement before the hearing go in there with your representative and be positive.

If you need any more help or advice contact me via E-mail