Employment tribunal fees will cause access to justice issues

Reintroduction of fees in Employment Tribunals will cause unacceptable access to justice issues for those most in need of free legal protections, according to the Law Society of Scotland.

The Law Society responded to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on Introducing Fees in the Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Paman Singh, member of the Law Society of Scotland’s Employment Law Committee, said: “It is crucial that these proposed measures do not cause serious access to justice issues for some of the most vulnerable members of our society. The fee may be affordable to many complainants but to those who have lost their jobs, are on minimum wage or benefits, £55 is a significant amount of money.

“The Consultation suggests the aim of the proposals is to reduce costs to the taxpayer. Given that the introduction of fees at the recommended rate would raise a mere fraction of the total annual cost of funding these services, we have serious questions about the rationale behind these proposals.

“There is a well-documented backlog of employment cases which might be better addressed by improving administration, technology and resourcing rather than introducing fees to cut down the workload of the Tribunal by the backdoor.

“Employers should be afforded some protection from spurious claims and those who raise nuisance or vexatious claims may be dissuaded by a modest fee. However, there seems to be no consideration given to other avenues of dealing with these, for example, a more robust initial consideration and sift process at the Employment Tribunal stage.”

Read our full response.