Being taken to an employment tribunal

Overview

You can be taken to an employment tribunal by an employee or someone else (eg a job applicant or trade union) over various issues, including:

• pay
• dismissal
• discrimination

The tribunal is independent of government and will listen to you (the ‘respondent’) and the other party (the ‘claimant’) before making a decision.

You may have to pay compensation or reinstate the claimant if you lose the case.

Solve the dispute without a hearing

You’ll be contacted by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) if someone wants to make a claim against you. They’ll offer to work with you and the claimant to try to solve the problem without it going to a tribunal - this is called ‘conciliation’.

Call Acas for help and advice.

Respond to a claim

The tribunal will send you a letter (known as a ‘response pack’) if a claim has been made against you and conciliation hasn’t worked. You can respond either:

• online
• by filling out and returning the response pack you’re sent
• by downloading and filling in the response form and sending it to the tribunal office dealing with the case

Read the response guidance before you fill in the form.

You may be able to get more time to respond - ask the tribunal. If you’re late or don’t respond, the tribunal may make a decision against you without a hearing.

Offer the claimant compensation

You can try to settle the case at any time by offering to pay compensation to the claimant (known as a ‘settlement agreement’).

Get help or legal advice

You may want to get legal advice in England and Wales or Scotland if a claim is made against you.

Call the employment tribunal enquiry line for general guidance on how the process works. They can’t give you legal advice.

If you’re in Northern Ireland

Your case will be dealt with by the Office of Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal.

Before the hearing

You’ll be given at least 14 days’ notice before the hearing - you’ll get a letter confirming this. You must prepare documents and arrange for witnesses to attend in advance.

‘Preliminary hearing’

You may be asked to go to an initial hearing (called a preliminary hearing) with the judge to decide on things like:

• the date and time of a hearing
• how long the hearing should take

The tribunal will let you know if you’ll have to give evidence or provide any extra information.

Arrange documents

You can ask the claimant for documents that will help you with the case, and they can request documents from you.

Examples of documents include:

• a contract of employment
• pay slips
• details of a pension scheme
• notes from relevant meetings

Usually the tribunal will issue an order setting out a timetable for when you should exchange documents.

You’ll be sent a letter telling you how many copies of each document to bring to the hearing.

Organise witnesses

You can bring witnesses to the hearing if they can give evidence directly relevant to the case.

If you ask a witness to attend and they don’t want to, you can ask the tribunal to order them to come. You must apply in writing to the tribunal office dealing with the case, giving:

• the name and address of the witness
• details of what the witness may be able to say and how it will help the case
• the reason the witness has refused to attend (if they gave you one)

At the hearing

Cases are normally held at the employment tribunal office closest to where you worked.

You must take the documents you’re using to support the case.

You can’t claim for expenses for going to the hearing.

What happens at the hearing

You’ll present the case to the tribunal - someone else can do this for you, eg a lawyer, friend or family member. The claimant will present their case against you.

You may be asked questions by:

• the judge
• the claimant
• 2 other tribunal members (only in certain tribunals)

Get a decision

You’ll be sent the decision in the post a few days or weeks after the hearing. In certain cases you may also be given the decision at the hearing.

If you win the case

In most cases, you won’t be awarded any compensation if you win. However, if the claimant acted unreasonably or if their case had no hope of success, you can ask to be awarded costs by the tribunal.

If you lose the case

If you lose, the tribunal can order you to do certain things depending on the type of case. Examples include:

• giving the claimant their job back
• paying compensation if you can’t give the claimant their job back
• paying witness expenses
• paying damages or loss of earnings
• paying the claimant’s tribunal fees

Pay compensation

Paying compensation is the most common outcome of a tribunal. There can be limits to the amount of money a tribunal can award. There’s no limit in cases of discrimination.

Interest is charged from the day the judgment is received, but you don’t pay interest if you pay the whole award within 14 days. If you don’t pay, you can be forced to do so - this includes being taken to court.

The tribunal usually works out the amount based on the financial loss the person has suffered as a result of your actions.

Pay back state benefits

You might have to pay back any Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support or Employment Support Allowance (ESA) that the claimant claimed while taking their case to the tribunal.

This is to prevent them from getting paid twice.

The tribunal and the Compensation Recovery Unit will tell you what you need to do and how much to pay.

If you disagree with a tribunal decision

You can ask the tribunal to reconsider the decision if you lose the case.

You must write to the tribunal office within 14 days of getting the decision, saying why you want it to be reconsidered.

You need to give good reasons, eg:

• the tribunal made a mistake in the way it reached its decision
• you weren’t told about the hearing
• new evidence has turned up since the hearing

Send your letter to the tribunal office that dealt with the case.

Appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal

You can also appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal if you think the employment tribunal made a legal mistake.

Legislation

The Employment Tribunal follows certain rules and processes that you also have to follow.

You can also read other relevant tribunal rules and regulations.

The tribunal has issued guidance and practice directions which provides more information about specific areas, eg postponing hearings and serving documents.

You can also read guidance about specific cases.