Judicial review of fees sought

The UNISON public services union has announced that it is bringing a claim in the High Court asking for a judicial review of the government’s decision to introduce fees to access the employment tribunal system (see Labour Research, September 2012, page 25).

Fees are to be introduced in both the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal from 29 July 2013. Under new regulations published in June, failure to pay the required fee or to lodge a completed application for fee remission will mean the claim will not be allowed to proceed. To qualify for remission, a claimant must pass a means test based on both capital and income.

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis described tribunal charges as “a blatant attempt to stop working people from exercising their employment rights [which] will give unscrupulous employers the green light to ride roughshod over employees’ already very basic rights at work”.

The union will argue that tribunal fees are a breach of European Union law because they make it virtually impossible for a worker to exercise their rights under employment law.

In many cases, the fees will exceed the amount of compensation awarded, even if the claim is successful.

UNISON will also highlight the failure to carry out a proper assessment of the impact of the fees on disadvantaged groups, in breach of the Public Sector Equality Duty, pointing out that introducing fees is likely to have a disproportionate impact, in particular, on women.