New Employment Tribunal Regulations

From today (October 1, 2004) new regulations govern procedures in Employment Tribunal proceedings.

Under the new rules the familiar IT1 and IT3 forms currently used to make and respond to a claim will disappear in April 2005. They are replaced by an ET1 and ET3 which may be used right away and can be completed online at the Employment Tribunals website.

No longer will a claim have to be lodged in a particular Tribunal office depending upon where the applicant worked; now any Tribunal office will accept a claim. The same rules will apply to Tribunals in Scotland as in England and Wales.

Documents that have to be sent in proceedings can now be sent by post, fax, or email as well as delivered by hand.

New pre-acceptance procedures are aimed to sift out claims and responses that have no proper grounds.

No claim will normally be accepted unless the employee has submitted a grievance letter to his employer and 28 days have elapsed.

A new limited conciliation period of 7 to 13 weeks will apply during which cases will not be listed for hearing and ACAS will be able to try and get parties to agree terms.

Costs orders may be made against party’s representatives whose conduct is found is found to have wasted costs. Costs orders against a party may now only be made if a party is legally represented.

Unrepresented parties who are held to have wasted time may be ordered to pay for the other party’s preparation time at the rate of £25 an hour but this will not include hearing time. As with cost’s orders there is a cap of £10,000.