The Tribunal Road Map out of COVID – It’s Virtually the Same
Last month, the Ministry of Justice published their latest quarterly statistics for the period October to December 2020 for employment tribunal (ET) claims. Multiple claims filed increased by 82% and single claims filed increased by 25% when compared with the same quarter in 2019. The likely reasons for such increases are certainly COVID-related and the number of outstanding ET claims also continues to rise as the number of claims received continues to outstrip the number disposed of.
However, the Presidents of the Employment Tribunals in England and Wales and in Scotland have a cunning plan to deal with this ever-increasing caseload and have published an updated road map for the next year. Although it is accepted that hearings are best conducted face-to-face, it will be necessary for most hearings to be conducted by video using the Cloud Video Platform (or telephone for case management hearings) for the next two years. This will be the default arrangement for any hearings yet to be listed, other than discrimination and whistleblowing cases. Unfair dismissal cases will be held in person around the country wherever it is possible to do so as COVID restrictions are relaxed and capacity permits. However, arrangements for hearings in London and the South-East (where the greatest backlog of claims exists at present) are likely to be remote for some considerable time to come for all claims.
As you may know, the employment tribunals are divided up into ten geographic regions around England and Wales, usually with one administrative centre and a number of hearing centres. A tribunal claim will usually be allocated to and heard in the region where the claimant worked.
However, in order to hear claims faster, a new “virtual region” is being set up in April 2021 which will be able to hear any claim remotely, but will probably focus on hearing claims which would otherwise be heard in London and the South-East. This will allow judges and lay members to be redeployed from less busy regions to the virtual region.
Notwithstanding the default positions for hearings set out in the road map, parties will be entitled to ask for hearings to be held in a different format to the default format for their relevant region (which they should do at the earliest possible time) and judges are always entitled to decide that the default position should not apply.
In addition, judges will be able to devote greater time to hearing cases on the appointment of 16 new legal officers who start work in April 2021. A new Practice Direction authorises these legal officers to carry out various delegated administrative functions such as rejecting a claim where it does not include the required early conciliation information, dealing with applications for an extension of time to file a response, case management order applications and postponement of hearing applications by consent. A party will be entitled to ask for an employment judge to review any decision taken by a legal officer provided that the request is made in writing within 14 days of being sent the decision.
If you’re defending or thinking of bringing a claim in the employment tribunal, please contact the team at Synchrony Law for details of how we can help you.