Commenting today (Thursday) on confirmation the government won’t reintroduce employment tribunal fees, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:
“Tribunal fees would have completely undermined the positive changes in the Employment Rights Bill and only benefited unscrupulous bosses.
“The bill is designed to make work fairer. But the new rights would be meaningless if workers can’t afford to enforce them if employers ignore the law.
“Tribunal fees are unfair and would deny low-income workers access to justice. That’s why UNISON went to court and got them scrapped.
“Ministers are right to rule out bringing them back. Their return shouldn’t have been under consideration though.”
Notes to editors:
– The judgment UNISON v The Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 2015/0233 can be found here.
– The seven Supreme Court judges ruled unanimously that the fee scheme was unlawful and was a breach of access to justice. The judgment referred to the government’s misunderstanding of “elementary economics, and plain common sense”, when ministers claimed higher fees would mean increased demand. The Supreme Court also stressed that the administration of justice was not merely a public service, where courts and tribunals were only of value to the “users” who appeared before them and who obtained a remedy. It also said the fall in claims when fees came in was “so sharp, so substantial and so sustained” that they could not reasonably be afforded by those on low to middle incomes, and did not act as a deterrent to spurious claims, as success rates also decreased.
– Employment tribunal fees were originally introduced on 29 July 2013.
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union, with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.
Media contacts:
Dan Ashley M: 07508 080349 E: d.ashley@unison.co.uk
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk
The article Government right to rule out unfair tribunal fees, says UNISON first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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