Employment Tribunal Services
Employment Tribunal representation and advice for employees
Bringing a claim against your employer
Employment Tribunals deal with claims brought against employers by you as employees relating to your employment or its termination. These can cover a wide range of issues including unfair dismissal claims, wrongful dismissal claims, discrimination in the workplace claims and equal pay claims. Employment Tribunals can also hear claims against other bodies such as trade unions and professional associations.
Before any claim is issued, it has to be sent to Acas first to see if their conciliators can settle the claim.
This process is therefore important because:
- If you wanted to bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal, it is a procedural requirement that you have already notified an Early Conciliation to Acas and obtained an Early Conciliation Certificate. Without the Certificate the Tribunal will not accept your claim
- By starting an EC, you “freeze” the time limit to then bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal. The time limit resumes once an Early Conciliation Certificate is issued, and depending upon the exact dates, time is sometimes extended. We will need to discuss this further at a later stage, if we have not managed to reach a settlement
- While you are within your rights to start and end an Early Conciliation immediately (i.e. simply to obtain an Early Conciliation Certificate), the process can sometimes be an effective way to reach a settlement. Many of our clients find that their employer will take it seriously and put forward offers. We are encouraging you to do the same in order to limit your costs and reach a sensible outcome
If you want to pursue a claim against more than one Respondent, you will need to submit a form for each of them. The Early Conciliation Support Officer will normally consolidate the Early Conciliations so that they will be dealt with together
It is often better for you and your employer to resolve problems using the Acas grievance and disciplinary procedures before problems reach an Employment Tribunal claim. A third-party mediator can also help. We can provide a trained mediator. If a claim does reach the Employment Tribunal, any award can be increased or decreased by up to 25% if either side has unreasonably failed to follow the Acas Code.
Although employees can represent themselves in a UK Employment Tribunal, specialist Employment Tribunal solicitors increase the chances of success. Tribunal rules are complex and losing or winning can depend on using the right tactics from the outset, so it pays to get advice from solicitors as early as possible.
How we will help
Our specialist Employment Tribunal solicitors have many years’ experience representing both employers and employees across a wide variety of cases. If you believe you have a claim against your employer we can help.
As part of our Employment Tribunal service we will explore alternatives to a claim such as negotiating a settlement or mediation. If we believe your best course of action is to take a claim to an Employment Tribunal we will advise on how best to present your case and maximise your chances of winning. We will also estimate the cost of bringing your case to an Employment Tribunal. We can also advise on taking a case to the Employment Appeal Tribunal or higher Courts if your claim is unsuccessful in the first instance.
Contact us today on 01273 609911, or email info@ms-solicitors.co.uk.
