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Tribunal head points to fee hike over claims drop
Employment tribunals president Judge Brian Doyle told the justice committee that he is concerned that 60 per cent of claimants who entered into early conciliation did not manage to either settle their cases or bring them to a tribunal.
He was giving evidence as part of the committee’s inquiry into the impact of courts and tribunals charges.
The number of employment tribunal cases has been falling since the introduction of fees to issue claims in July 2013. A fee of up to £250 is now charged for a basic claim, and the fee for an unfair dismissal hearing, the most common type of claim, is £950.
The Act for the Act campaign in defence of the Human Rights Act has been launched, with posters in 100 London tube stations and on billboards in towns and cities nationwide, featuring people the act has helped.
The nine people featured on the posters include Mark Neary (pictured), who used articles 8 (right to family life) and 5 (right to liberty) of the act after his local authority refused to let his autistic son Steven home after a spell in respite care. The council argued Steven should be moved to a care home hundreds of miles away. Other posters tell the stories of Jan Sutton, who was left in bed all day by her carers; and Hughes Cousins-Chang, who, at age 17, was held by police for 11 hours and not allowed to call home.
The crowdfunded campaign was founded by two Doughty Street barristers, Caoilfhionn Gallagher and Martha Spurrier, and Legal Action editor Fiona Bawdon, to mobilise public opinion against Conservative plans to scrap the act.
Supporters are asked to sign an online letter to justice secretary Michael Gove.