Businesses and lawyers have warned that Labour’s plans for workers’ rights risk overwhelming employment tribunals.
Ben Smith, a Senior Associate at a leading employment law firm, said this would “potentially open up a lot of claims” when the system is already suffering from backlogs.
Smith said: “I think the risk is the tribunal is slow, there’s a big backlog, it’s getting better but it’s still slow. So if you’ve got that influx of new cases from people who previously wouldn’t have a claim, I think it will take us back to the very very big backlogs, very slow process for claims, just because there is not the resource, and then it’s a lose-lose.“
“What often happens is that employees will drop claims or just won’t bring claims at all because it takes a long time, and then employers with good cases, if they’ve got a good defence, they will feel pressure just to settle just to get it out of the way rather than wait two years.”
He added: “There is little or no further capacity in employment tribunals across the country — a spike in claims would cause even longer backlogs.”
