Friday 26 April 2013

Employment Tribunal Fees

Regulations were apparently laid before parliament yesterday (they are not yet available on the legislation.gov.uk website) dealing with the introduction of employment tribunal fees.

The Ministry of Justice has published a stakeholder letter explaining the new rules (which are expected to come into force this summer).

The letter states that the "sanction for non-payment of issue fees and hearing fees are that the claim will not be allowed to commence or continue in the tribunal." It is unclear whether this means the claim will be stayed or struck out; hopefully the answer will appear in the draft statutory instrument.

Fee levels are unchanged from the information issued following consultation, ie a £250 issue fee, and a £950 hearing fee, for most types of claim (including unfair dismissal, discrimination and whistleblowing). Starightforward claims such as unlawful deductions and statutory redundancy payments carry a lower fee (£160 issue; £230 hearing).

An accompanying Q&A document states that fees can be paid online (when issuing claims online). If lodging a claim by post, the ET1 and a cheque must be sent to a designated tribunal (I have heard a rumour that Bristol will be the designated tribunal for all claims in England & Wales, but that is unconfirmed).

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