Employment Law Solicitors Concerned By Current Employment Tribunal System
Employment law solicitors and HR professionals alike are expressing increased concern over the state of the UK’s Employment Tribunal system, following a huge increase in the number of cases being accepted to the Tribunal over the past twelve months. Through the twelve months to July 2010, the number of accepted cases was 236,000 which represented a massive hike on the 151,000 accepted in the preceding year. HR professionals claim to be struggling to cope with the increase in grievances whilst employment law solicitors are also expressing their worries.
Perhaps in response to high levels of redundancies forced on employers by the recession, Employment Tribunal cases are at the highest ever level. Now, the results of an ELA (Employment Lawyers Association) survey have expressed the mounting concerns of employment law solicitors.
The main concern that employment law solicitors across the country appeared to express was a lack of consistency with the Employment Tribunal’s approach, efficiency and quality in different parts of the UK. Weaknesses and potential improvements were suggested in the survey responses, with suggestions on how to save costs and time of utmost importance.
Over four fifths of the employment law solicitors surveyed said that they did not believe that the approach of the Employment Tribunal across the UK was consistent. At the same time 93% claimed that improved consistency would be beneficial to all concerned.
According to a huge proportion of employment law solicitors, the biggest problems with the current system are the time it takes and the costs it runs up. Many supported the idea of having one single tribunal office deal with large equal pay claims. Almost four fifths supported the implementation of an improved case tracking system, possibly with a web portal. This, claim employment law solicitors, would improve efficiency and drive down costs for all concerned.
Tags: Association Survey, Consistency, Current System, employment law solicitors, Employment Lawyers Association, Employment Tribunal, Equal Pay, Four Fifths, Grievances, Hr Professionals, Proportion, Recession, redundancies, Survey Responses, Tribunal Cases, Tribunal Office, Twelve Months, Utmost Importance, Web Portal, Worries