Handling employment tribunal claims

Introduction

At some point, you may feel that you need to dismiss or take disciplinary action against an employee or a group of employees. Similarly, one of your employees - or a group of your employees - may believe you have treated them unfairly. If so, and you have been unable to deal with the matter informally, you should try to sort out the problem in the workplace by using your disciplinary/dismissal or grievance procedure as appropriate.

However, if the employee - or group of employees - is not happy with the outcome of the procedure, they could make a claim to an employment tribunal. This is a judicial body - less formal than a court - established to resolve disputes between employers and workers over employment rights, such as unlawful deductions from wages, dismissal, redundancy payments or discrimination.

This guide sets out how employment tribunal claims work. It also looks at alternative methods of resolving workplace disputes without the need for a tribunal hearing, in particular the ways Acas can help.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• What happens after an employment tribunal receives a claim
• Resolving employment disputes without the need for a tribunal hearing
• Acas conciliation
• Preparing for tribunal hearings
• Pre-hearing discussions and reviews
• Tribunal hearings
• Possible outcomes from tribunal cases
• Compensation for successful tribunal claims
• Recouping state benefits from tribunal awards
• Appealing against a tribunal judgment
• Here's how we use mediation to resolve workplace disputes (Flash video)

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