Our post on September 14th entitled “[EAT] Tribunal Fees Likely Have Caused 71% Drop In Claims” elicited a lot of comments.  Indeed, it is a contentious subject on many levels.

Here is one more observation on the topic from Andrew Berke, a solicitor from Guildford, UK:

“Whilst both employees and employers may consider the Employment Tribunal system to be biased against them, I have noticed that over the past 5 years or so that the ETs have tended to side more with employers. Therefore, winning ET cases has become that much more difficult for employees and the ETs have also shown themselves far more willing to make cost orders against employees even where the employees concerned are representing themselves and have had no prior warning that their claims might be vexatious or misconceived!

Whilst there is a fine balancing act between employees who do not feel that they get justice from the ET system and employers who want protecting from unwarranted claims, charging fees for ET claims is simply adding insult to injury for many employees.”