Workers are facing 18 month wait list for employment tribunals

by XPRESS, 29 July 2019

Claimants for employment tribunals are being made to wait 18 months for their cases to be heard. Lawyers have warned this is because of a large backlog.

Generally, tribunals take eight months to be heard on average, but some are having been scheduled for as late as 2021. Waiting times have been continually increasing for four years. Waiting lists particularly took a spike when tribunal fees were abolished in 2017.

GQ Littler law firm said that the abolition of fees created a steep rise in claims, coming at a time that courts were already struggling to cope due to restricted funding.

The firm conducted researched over this year and last which found that the average time between filing a claim and it being heard went up to 237 days from 207.

GQ Littler claimed that lack of funding is making it increasingly more difficult to employ sufficient judicial and support staff.

The spike in waiting times had left employers very uncertain, not knowing the result of a claim, while employees may be delayed in closing their claims.

Emma Richardson