Affordable • Accessible • Approachable • Able

Call us today on tel 08458 678 978

Skip to navigation
Skip to contact form

Employment Tribunals & Uplift: employers push employment law back in their favour

Jon FriendA landmark ruling by the Employment Appeals Tribunal has limited the discretion of tribunals to increase employer’s penalties for not following fair dismissal procedures. Tribunals can now only apply an uplift to what is left owing rather than the whole award.

Employment tribunals have discretion to increase awards for failing to follow fair grievance and dismissal procedures by 25% (This is reduced from the previous 50% and there is no longer a minimum uplift applied in all cases of 10%).

Now, employers can successfully remove the tribunal’s discretion to uplift awards, by paying the sums they accept are bound to be awarded just before a tribunal hearing.

In a recent case, an employee was summarily dismissed without notice pay, redundancy pay or his accrued holiday pay.

The employer failed to follow an adequate procedure and the employee claimed unfair dismissal. 

A week before the employment tribunal hearing, the employer paid the due notice and redundancy pay.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled that the uplift was only in respect of the outstanding money owed for unfair dismissal and not in relation to the award for notice or redundancy pay. The award was reduced from £20,000 to just over £1,000.

Employers and employees should keep this case in mind when negotiating compromise agreements or settling tribunal claims.

Leave a Reply