Some areas of concern for businesses have been highlighted in the recently published minutes of the National Employment Tribunal User Group meeting. Particularly, that new employment tribunal claims have risen to a post-pandemic high, many cases are becoming significantly more complex and waiting times for hearings particularly in some regions are extremely long.
So, what could this mean for your business?
- Key points in brief
- Pro-active steps to reduce the likelihood of your business facing an employment tribunal claim
- The first step if your business is contacted as part of ACAS early conciliation / receives an employment tribunal claim
Key points in brief
The minutes of the National Employment Tribunal User Group meeting covered a number of areas including:
- Receipts of single claims are at their highest level since the pandemic ‘shock’ of 2020 – the increase in receipts appeared to be sustained over 2024-25 and 2025-26, continuing to rise.
- Many cases have become more complex – Open track cases (typically complex claims, mainly discrimination and whistleblowing) now represent 60% of new single claims nationally. This is an increase from 20-25% 15-20 years ago. This is significant for businesses and the employment tribunal system. Open track cases are much more complicated, they take longer to manage to a hearing, often involving more than one preliminary hearing and the final hearing itself lasts considerably longer. This contributes to an increasing backlog of tribunal claims. From a business perspective, they can also be costly claims to lose, for example there is no limit on the amount that can be awarded in a successful whistleblowing claim.
- Waiting times – Whilst hearings in most regions can be accommodated in 2026 or 2027 five-day hearings in south London are now being scheduled in the first half of 2029, this is likely to make an already difficult situation even more challenging for affected businesses.
The President of the Employment Tribunals for England and Wales commented that there was no obvious explanation for the increase in single employment tribunal claims. However, AI was “believed to be at least a partial cause of the rise in claims and increased complexity”. This may come as no surprise to businesses.
Pro-active steps to reduce the likelihood of your business facing an employment tribunal claim
The above will understandably make concerning reading for some, especially with further changes to the law to be brought in by the Employment Rights Act 2025 making for an increasingly challenging landscape. The good news is that there are things that you can do to reduce the likelihood of employment tribunal claims being made against your business and to help put you in a more robust position if they are made. These include:
- Ensuring you have appropriate policies and procedures in place and that your employees know what is expected of them in terms of workplace conduct and standards of performance
- Making sure those with people management responsibilities are appropriately trained and supported so they are able to manage common HR matters effectively, appropriately and with confidence. This can help to prevent avoidable issues arising such as automatic unfair dismissal claims
- Keep up to date with employment law changes to avoid accidentally getting caught out by developments
- Keep accurate and appropriate records to enable you to evidence compliance with the law, for example records of disciplinary / grievance / poor performance investigations and processes, redundancy processes, compliance with minimum wage, holiday and working time rights
The first step if your business is contacted as part of the ACAS early conciliation scheme / receives an employment tribunal claim
If either of the above happen in your business, please get in touch with us for specific advice on your situation. Remember time is of the essence, particularly if you have received an employment tribunal claim as there is a deadline for submitting a response.