Tribunals face more change

A government-commissioned task force on employment tribunals has proposed a number of ways of reforming the system.

The task force published its report, Moving forward, at the end of July. It recommends that a "high-level co-ordinating body" be set up to assist tribunals in moving forward coherently. This body would disseminate best practice across the regions and develop information technology strategies.

The review argues that the government put greater emphasis on the prevention of disputes, by promoting mediation as an alternative to applicants taking legal cases through the tribunals.

The review also proposes that the parties to tribunal hearings should be obliged to disclose information concerning their case to the other party at a much earlier stage than is required at present.

The review's findings tie in closely with current government thinking on ways to reduce the number of tribunal claims.

The Employment Act 2002 already contains measures aimed at restricting the right of individuals to take their claims to employment tribunals (see Labour Research, Back-up, April 2002). However, recent figures published by the Employment Tribunals Service (ETS) show that tribunal applications were already falling without taking any account of the new law. Up to the end of March 2002 there were 112,227 applications, compared to 130,408 the previous year. The impact of the new Act will be to push these figures down even further and potentially deprive thousands of workers of the right to pursue statutory claims.

* Moving forward: the report of the employment tribunal system task force.