{"id":1175,"date":"2017-10-24T11:47:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T11:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/?p=1175"},"modified":"2017-11-01T17:17:16","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T17:17:16","slug":"refunds-begin-of-tribunal-application-fees-shady-employers-beware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/refunds-begin-of-tribunal-application-fees-shady-employers-beware\/","title":{"rendered":"Refunds Begin of Tribunal Application Fees; Shady Employers Beware"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"color: #9b0505;\">The First Phase of Refunding Has Begun<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The Government has started a trial of reimbursing individuals who were charged and paid a fee to enter a claim at an Employment Tribunal.\u00a0 This is as a result of the Supreme Court deciding that such fees were an unreasonable obstacle to accessing justice in cases in which employment rights had been breached.<\/p>\n<p>The first phase will be conducted over the next 4 weeks and will involve about 1.000 past applicants. It is a trial before the second phase, in which refunds will be made to all eligible individuals and organisations, begins later in November.<\/p>\n<p>Refunds are only applicable to fees paid since the charges were introduced from 28th July 2013.\u00a0 Interest of 5% will be paid with the refund.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #9b0505;\">Who Will be in the First Phase?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>This is being restricted to individuals who made a single claim to a Tribunal and have previously registered their interest in receiving a refund.\u00a0 These individuals will be contacted in the next few <span style=\"color: #9b0505;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">weeks. \u00a0 Proof of payment will be required in many instances and a statement will need to be signed.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #9b0505;\">Who Will be in the Full Roll out (Second Phase)?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Refunds will then be extended to all past applicants who fall into one of the following categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Paid a fee directly to the Employment Tribunal or Employment Appeal Tribunal and have not been reimbursed by their opponent in accordance with an order of the Tribunal or<\/li>\n<li>Ordered by the Tribunal to reimburse the fee to their opponent and who can show that they have paid it or<\/li>\n<li>Representatives (such as a Trade Union) who paid a fee on behalf of another person and have not been reimbursed by that person or<\/li>\n<li>The lead claimant (or representative) in a multiple claim who paid a fee on behalf of the other claimants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Employers will not be eligible<\/strong><\/em>, under either phase, to reclaim fees for which they compensated an employee as part of a private settlement.\u00a0 However. the individual who paid the fee to the Tribunal will still be eligible for a refund.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #9b0505;\">Do Not Get Overlooked<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>If you have not been invited to take part in the initial stage, you should register your interest for a refund when the full scheme is rolled out.\u00a0 A pre-registration scheme has been set up for which you can register by email at <a href=\"mailto:ethelpwithfees@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ethelpwithfees@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk<\/a> or by posting a notice to the relevant office below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Employment Tribunals Central Office (England and Wales)\/Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) Fees, PO Box 10218, Leicester LE1 8EG or<\/li>\n<li>The Employment Tribunals Central Office Scotland\/Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) Fees, PO Box 27105, Glasgow G2 9JRX.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #9b0505;\">Response by Employers<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>There was a marked drop in the number of Employment Tribunal cases after fees were introduced so an increase in applications in the future should not be a surprise.\u00a0 Many employers have put in place the means to address grievances and investigate concerns or issues regarding employment matters.<\/p>\n<p>Some employers though will still\u00a0 flout employment laws e.g. erratic payment of staff,\u00a0 discouraging the taking of rest breaks and\/or holidays.\u00a0\u00a0 ACAS does not seem to have a sufficient bite if an employer refuses to engage in pre-tribunal conciliation and HMRC does not always give priority to single cases of breaches of the National Minimum Wage rates.\u00a0 At least now, individuals will have the means to start a claim if an employer is being foolish.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the foundation stones that characterise an effective employer are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a flexible set of employment terms which balance the needs of the employer and employees;<\/li>\n<li>managers trained to address people issues before they erupt into formal processes, disengagement or recurring problems;<\/li>\n<li>dealing with issues promptly rather than ignoring them in the hope they will go away.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How do you fare against our Hallmarks of Effective HR Management?\u00a0 Read more about <a href=\"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/hallmarks-of-effective-hr-management\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a simple self-audit<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #9b0505;\">Will Fees Be Reintroduced?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>[Updateon\u00a031\/10\/2017 to the original article ]<\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of Justice has indicated that reasonable fees for making an application to an Employment Tribunal may be introduced later on.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Written statement &#8211; HCWS186,\u00a0 Ministry of Justice,\u00a0 by Dominic Raab (Minister of State for Justice), 20 October 2017<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 <strong>2017 HR Management Dimensions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Web site:\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HR Management Dimensions<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You are welcome to share this article with colleagues and friends provided the full source and copyright is shown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The First Phase of Refunding Has Begun The Government has started a trial of reimbursing individuals who were charged and paid a fee to enter a claim at an Employment Tribunal.\u00a0 This is as a result of the Supreme Court deciding that such fees were an unreasonable obstacle to accessing justice in cases in which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,24,21],"tags":[174,167,173,171,172],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employee-relations-engagement","category-employment-law","category-hr-management-dimensions","tag-hallmarks-of-effective-employers","tag-hallmarks-of-effective-hr-management","tag-phases-of-refunding-tribunal-fees","tag-refund-of-tribunal-fees","tag-registering-for-a-refund"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}