Employment Minister Gerry Sutcliffe praised the new rules on workplace dispute resolution and also to changes to the Employment Tribunal's rules of procedure both of which were introduced in October last year. He said that they "promote better communication in the workplace and encourage people to talk through disputes when and where they occur, using employment tribunals as a back up rather than a first port of call."
But if communication fails and an employee does resort to a tribunal, the employee must provide a greater level of detail about the claim than under the old application procedures. And TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber believes this new regime, with its "maze of new rules," is baffling workers.
"We are concerned that the substantial fall in employment tribunal claims has been caused by complex new rules deterring employees from bringing a claim, no matter how strong their case," he said.
Mr Barber urged the government to investigate.
A recent case supports the TUC's point. When a customer service manager, Mr Richardson, made a tribunal claim for unfair dismissal against U-Mole Ltd, a Cambridgeshire supplier of trenchless installation equipment, he failed to complete the right application form. Because his application did not expressly state that he was an employee, the tribunal refused to hear his claim. The rules say that an applicant must state that he is an employee.
However, Mr Richardson appealed against the refusal successfully – which suggests there may be more flexibility to the rules than many believed. The Employment Appeals Tribunal recognised that the missing detail could be implied, even if it had not been stated. It also urged Parliament to re-evaluate the admissibility rules.
The figures show a drop from 115,042 claims in 2003/2004 to 86,181 claims in 2004/2005. However, Emma Grossmith, a specialist in Pinsent Masons' employment team, points out that last year's figures arguably were distorted – by 44,000 claims that were filed as a class action, all concerning the pension rights of part-time workers. The figure for 2002/2003 was more comparable with this year's figure, at 98,617.
She also points out that the new rules came into force half-way through the period covered by the 2004/2005 report.
Ms Grossmith commented: "While we hope that the rules are helping to reduce tribunal cases for positive reasons and not because of confusion, it's just not possible to say with certainty at this point in time whether they are the reason for the fall."
