News In Focus
8 December 2006
Employment tribunals face another shakeup
The government yesterday announced a further "root and branch" review of employment dispute resolution, only two years after new conciliation procedures were introduced in an attempt to cut the number of cases coming before employment tribunals.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling has asked Michael Gibbons, a former director of Powergen and a member of the Better Regulation Commission, to head the review.
Current figures show that the 2004 reforms, which were intended to encourage disputes to settle through conciliation or arbitration before reaching the employment tribunals, had only a temporary effect on the number of tribunal hearings. Over 115,000 applications were lodged last year, a similar level to that in 2003-04.
Employment lawyers have claimed that the conciliation period is simply being used for a pause in proceedings rather than for making genuine efforts to resolve disputes.
Business leaders also say the present system is still not working. A CBI survey three months ago found that smaller companies invariably chose to settle claims rather than defend them, even when advised that they were likely to win.
Mr Darling pledged to "make the employment disputes system work better, both for business and employees".