Employment-related tribunal claims

The best way to avoid someone making an employment-related tribunal claim against you is to avoid any disputes arising in the first place.

Employees - and in some cases other types of worker - may make an employment-related tribunal claim over issues such as:

• unfair dismissal
• redundancy pay
• discrimination on the grounds of gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marriage, civil partnership, disability, race, age, religious belief or political opinion
• breach of contract
• working hours
• unauthorised deductions from wages
• written statement of main terms and conditions of employment
• failure to inform and consult in a redundancy or business transfer situation
• equal pay

Avoid disputes

You can help to avoid disputes by:

• Giving each employee a written statement of main terms and conditions of employment. This is a legal requirement.
• Being prepared to consider employees' grievances, or raise disciplinary issues with them, informally and at an early stage wherever possible.
• Having clearly written policies and procedures where matters need to be dealt with formally. Note that disciplinary and grievance procedures are required and should comply with the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) Code of Practice.

You should:

• communicate these policies and procedures to your staff
• ensure that your staff fully understand them
• follow them consistently when the need arises

As an employer, you should also try to keep up to date with current employment law and any planned changes in legislation.

This may be time-consuming, but it's less time-consuming - and less expensive - than appearing before an employment-related tribunal.

Find out about new and updated employment regulations as they arise from the LRA.

Resolve disputes quickly

If a dispute does arise, you should try to resolve it as early, quickly and informally as possible - certainly before the employee even considers making a tribunal claim.

For advice on how to deal effectively with workplace disputes, see disciplinary procedures, hearings and appeals and handling grievances.

If an individual is likely to make a claim against you, despite your best efforts to resolve the issue, you can contact the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) and request Early Conciliation to help resolve the dispute without the need for a tribunal hearing. Where there is more than one employee but fewer than five with the same dispute, you can request Early Conciliation through the LRA online form. However, where there are five or more employees with the same dispute you should contact the LRA on 03300 552 220.