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27 Jan 2011

Cable attempts to reduce employment tribunals

The government plans to consult on proposals to reform the Employment Tribunal system and qualifying periods for unfair dismissal. The proposals include:

sending all unfair dismissal claims to ACAS to attempt conciliation before they reach a tribunal;
all unfair dismissal cases to be heard by a single judge rather than a panel of three;
the introduction of a fee to file any tribunal claim (the TUC claims this could be as high as £500);
extending the qualifying period to bring a claim for unfair dismissal from one year to two.
Sinan Alnajjar, solicitor Lawrence Graham, comments: "In 2010, the number of tribunal claims rose by 56% to a record 236,000. Vince Cable said today that the reforms would give businesses that want to expand the confidence to hire more staff due to the decreased risk of tribunal claims. The proposals may help to weed out some of the more vexatious and time wasting claims but it awaits to be seen whether they would have any significant effect on employers' recruitment habits. Having said that, the extension of the unfair dismissal qualifying period will surely provide employers with some breathing space.

"In terms of reducing tribunal claims, can anyone see a possible link between a record number of claims and record levels unemployment? Perhaps the problem will resolve itself once the job market stabilises. We await the result of the consultation."

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