Employment Tribunal Fees

The UK Ministry of Justice has published the results of its consultation on charging fees in the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.  A new two-stage fee structure will be implemented in summer 2013.  Claimants will be required to pay an issue fee when they lodge a claim and then a second fee to take that claim to a full hearing.  By way of summary, the main fees proposed for single claimant claims are:

• Level 1 claims: £160 issue fee and £230 hearing fee. These are the more straightforward, lower value claims such as for unpaid wages and redundancy payments.
• Level 2 claims: £250 issue fee and £950 hearing fee.  This will cover all other claims, including unfair dismissal and discrimination claims.
• Employment Appeal Tribunal fees: £400 issue fee and £1,200 hearing fee.

As mentioned previously, these fees are intended to help business by reducing the number of opportunistic and unwarranted claims (please see our June 2012 update).