Labour is also considering supporting an extremely regressive proposal that workers should pay tribunal fees to bring claims in employment tribunals. This launch is to help find savings within the Ministry of Justice budget. Yet this step has alarmed conservationists, industry representatives, and other stakeholders.
Their national Chancellor Rachel Reeves then endorsed the direction of that plan in her spending review back in June. The proposal represents the government’s attempt to reduce the cost of providing the employment tribunal service. This service is now facing a massive backlog of cases. Labour’s plans include a new employment rights bill. Under this bill, workers will be able to sue their employers at tribunal for unfair dismissal from their very first day at work. The bill would increase the time limit for bringing most tribunal claims. It will expand the introductory period from three months to six months.
The same government estimates expect tribunal claims to explode by 15% once Labour’s new employment rights bill comes into effect. The dramatic shift that this expected change is leading to is historic. The UK’s employment tribunal backlog is the other major issue. By the end of March, there were nearly 45,000 active individual open cases.
The UK’s recent experience with tribunal fees provides important backdrop to the conversations taking place now. Fees for employment tribunal claims were rescinded in 2017 after the Supreme Court found them to be unlawful. During that time, the introduction of quarterly fees led to a steep decline in the number of applications per quarter. They dropped by roughly two-thirds over that period.
For now, Labour is looking at bringing these fees back. In parallel, David Lammy, justice secretary, is conducting a departmental policy audit to inform the decision.
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