I saw something very disturbing yesterday. Apparently there is now going to be a cost to bringing a case in an employment tribunal of £250 to bring the case and £1000 if the case goes to hearing only to be refunded if you win the case.
I know why don't we just start sending children down the mines again?
A little drastic you may think, well isn't this the logical extension of what this outrageous manipulation of the system brings? Employment tribunals are there to allow individuals to seek some kind of recourse for unfair practices by employers. Without access to this form of justice we are ultimately making the employer/employee relationship untenable.
A charge for this service would preclude so many people who would have previously been able take their cases to tribunal particularly those claiming for constructive dismissal which at the moment is virtually impossible to win. It is adding to the bullying nature of the system.
Magna Carta enshrined the right to a trial in the English legal system. the Human Rights Act confirmed this, Are we about to tear them both up for a measly £1000?
Now there are some of you who would say if the case is strong enough sue and be damned because you'll get the money back but how many of you have been through the process which although supposed to be fair is actually heavily stacked in favour of the employer already. Employment Judges are not minded to follow the rules of fairness at times particularly when it comes to disclosure of evidence.
Take for example a bullying case where the employee claims that they have been forced out of work by constant harassment by the employer including inappropriate telephone calls and unfair working practices. It is unlikely that the Employment Judge will order disclosure of company records that will confirm or deny this.
That would never happen I hear you say. Wrong it happened in one case where I was representing a client, a carer, against a large care company, her ex employer. My client sued for constructive dismissal because they were expected to be in 2 places at once, travel great distances in no time, work 20 hour days without breaks, change schedules at two minutes notice, work on their own when there should have been two people present and a whole raft of other things including being de facto on call 24/7. All this for no doubt wonderful remuneration, not at all, minimum wage and what is called a zero hour contract which they were forced to sign to replace their initial 16 hours per week contract. The employer would telephone the employee in the middle of the night, shout and swear at family members and even threatened a child.
My client was so undermined by their employer that they had no option to leave and claim constructive dismissal even though they knew that this would potentially finish their career as a trainee social worker and leave their family potentially penniless.
In the tribunal the employer basically lied and then disappeared all their witnesses but the Judge refused to order disclosure of records that would confirm these patterns and when an application was made under the Data Protection Act records that were supposed to be kept for 6 years under Inland Revenue regulations suddenly had been destroyed, Why? Well the records not only proved the case against the employer but also showed that the company was defrauding clients including Local Authorities of possibly millions of pounds.
In the end I won the case because of the arguments I put forward over the disappearing witnesses but I have to say it was still luck because the system was so belligerent.
That client already in a traumatised state would never have been able to bring the case if the fee structure was in place and that would have left them potentially psychologically damaged for the rest of their lives and prevented them from being a useful economic resource to this country as well as their family.
So come on stop this stupidity now and stop these proposed fees.
Bring forth fair Portia, and show us the quality of mercy is not strained!
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