UK Law Lords In Historic Decision On Employment Tribunal Fees

In a judgment that many commentators are calling the most significant in employment law in over 50 years, on July 25, 2017, the United Kingdom's Supreme Court decided that the system whereby employees must pay fees to bring their claims in the UK employment tribunal should be scrapped.

Since the tribunal system was established, it was always the case that someone could sue his or her employer without having to pay anything to bring the case. This often meant that unworthy claims would reach a hearing and significant legal costs incurred by the employer before the case was dismissed.

In an attempt to reduce the burden on businesses struggling in the economic slowdown, the incoming Conservative Government of 2010 decided to introduce a system requiring disgruntled employees to pay a significant fee to bring a claim—in some instances of well over the equivalent of $1,500. In a system where the average award for unfair dismissal is often only $9,000, imposition of the fee was meant to act as a deterrent to the vexatious litigant. When the system came into effect in 2013, what in fact happened was that the number of claims dropped by 80 percent, and that decline obviously included some claims that were justified but where the employee simply did not have the resources to commence legal action.

Whilst popular with employers, for obvious reasons, the large British union, UNISON, lodged a challenge to this system that has worked its way up through the courts and finally reached the Law Lords sitting in the Supreme Court. Their Lordships disagreed with the lower courts and allowed the appeal, quoting a number of historical common law principles from the Magna Carta right up to recent EU case law, finding that it was a...