On 31 January 2017, the government published its review of the Employment Tribunal (ET) fees system. As our readers will be aware, the current system of requiring claimants to pay ET fees has faced significant criticism as creating a barrier to access to justice. The government has reviewed the situation and found that the introduction of fees has "broadly met its objectives". The lengthy report explains that, among other reasons, the introduction of the successful early conciliation scheme has contributed to the decline in potential claims proceeding to the ET. Further, that while people may have been discouraged from bringing claims because of the applicable fees, "there is no conclusive evidence that people have been prevented from bringing a claim".
Despite the glowing praise for the current system, there are still a few areas that the government have found to be unsatisfactory. First, as of 31 January 2017, no fees are required to bring a claim related to the recovery of a redundancy payment from the National Insurance Fund. The government has recognised that early conciliation may not resolve this dispute via early conciliation and that, as the employers are insolvent, the claimants will be unable to recover their fees from their employers. Second, the current Help with Fees scheme (which helps claimants with fee remission) is proposed to be extended, so that workers who earn approximately the National Living Wage, will be able to benefit from this scheme and have support with fees.
Please access the report (and respond to the consultation by 13 March 2017) by clicking on the link.
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