The Law Society states that Employment Tribunal fees have ‘harmed access to justice’

In June this year the government announced the start of a review of Employment Tribunal fees and the fee remission scheme which was promised when the fees were introduced in July 2013.

The Employment Tribunal Fees Post Implementation Review will consider how effective the introduction of fees has been in meeting the original objectives whilst maintaining access to justice. The review will take into account tribunal data on the number of cases being heard; the progress and outcomes of cases; financial information such as costs of recovering fees and income earned from fees; the comparison between trends before and after the fees were introduced; and the extent to which there has been a reduction in weak claims since the introduction of fees.

In light of the review, the Law Society’s Employment Law Committee has written a letter to the Ministry of Justice’s Employment Tribunal Fees Review Team.

The Law Society welcomed the review, especially due to the fact that there has been a huge reduction in the number of people taking disputes to the Employment Tribunal. The Society states that fees have ‘harmed access to justice’ and that ‘since July 2013 many people have not been able to enforce their employment rights’ which is of huge concern. The Law society has set out the areas in which access to justice has been harmed:-

• fees are high compared to average earnings;
• fees are high compared to tribunal awards;
• even for those who win there is a high chance that the fees will not be reimbursed;
• the remission system is not helping as many people as it should. It is confusing, uses complicated language, and is hard to navigate.

The Ministry of Justice has recently published the statistics for tribunals from January to March 2015. 25% fewer claims were received in this period than in the same period last year and working time claims were down 90% compared to the same period last year.

The review is due to be completed later this year, with a consultation on the recommendations to reform the fees to follow.