Expert Immigration Solicitors in Dartford

Internal processes

If you are dissatisfied with how your employer has dealt with an issue at work, or you feel you have been treated unfairly, you can either informally discuss the issue with Human Resources (HR) or a senior Manager or raise a formal grievance in accordance with the Employer’s Internal Policies and Procedures. If you raise a formal grievance, the Employer must invite you to a Grievance hearing and provide a grievance outcome. If you are dissatisfied with the Grievance outcome, you have the right to appeal against the Grievance outcome within the time scale provided in the Employer’s internal Policies and Procedure. While pursing the grievance under the Employer’s internal Policy  and Procedures, you should still be aware of the time limits. See below. 

If you are dissatisfied with the Grievance appeal decision and / or your grievance is not satisfactory resolved, you may wish to consider whether you are able to bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal.

Before you pursue an Employment Tribunal claim, you will need to gather all the information that is available to you that would assist in bringing a claim. For eg, correspondence or grievances raised, minutes of meetings, Grievance or appeal decisions, Employer’s Policies and Procedures etc. If you have been through a redundancy process which you believe to be unfair, ensure that you have all the correspondence sent and the minutes of the meeting. If you have been dismissed, ensure you have the written reasons for your dismissal. If you do not have any of these documents, request them from your employer as soon as possible.

At this stage, you may wish to seek legal advice to identify any claims available to you and to obtain advice on the prospect of your claim succeeding.

ACAS Early Conciliation

The next step is to inform ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation, Arbitration Service) that you intend to bring a claim against your employer. You have three months less one day of the incident you are complaining of, to notify ACAS of your claim by way of their Early Conciliation Service. For example, if you are dismissed on 24th March 2021, you will have until 23rd June 2021 to notify ACAS. Time limits are very strict and you may lose your opportunity to submit the claim if you delay.

You will be invited to take part in ACAS Early Conciliation as a way of resolving matters with your employer. If this is unsuccessful, ACAS will issue you an Early Conciliation Certificate with a certificate number.  You will be required to quote your certificate number in order to submit your claim to the Employment Tribunal.

Once you have received your Early Conciliation Certificate, you will have at least one month to issue your claim in the Employment Tribunal. In some circumstances, you may have longer than one month to issue your claim, it is dependent on when you started early conciliation. However, as a general rule, always try to submit your claim within one month of the certificate to ensure there will be no issues.

Employment Tribunal Claim Form

To start a claim in the Employment Tribunal, you must submit a claim form, known as an ET1.  A paper version of the claim form can be completed and sent to the relevant central office, or it can be completed and submitted online.  You do not have to pay a fee or any charge to submit your claim.  It is a free online process.

Once the claim form has been received by the Employment Tribunal, the claim will be assigned a case number and you will be sent an acknowledgement. You will also be advised of the details of the Regional Employment Tribunal to which all future correspondence should be sent.

The Employment Tribunal will send a copy of your claim form to your employer who then has 28 days to respond to your claim and give their version of events by completing a form known as an ET3. You, or your representative, will be sent a copy of the ET3 by the Employment Tribunal.

Once your claim has commenced, an ACAS officer will be assigned to your claim. This is separate to the early conciliation process that you have already been through. You can use this ACAS officer to continue to negotiate a settlement until a judgment is granted by the Employment Tribunal. 

Employment Tribunal Case Management Orders

The Employment Tribunal will usually list a Case Management Discussion to discuss and identify the issues and to make Case Management Orders to assist in preparation to ensure that the matter is ready for a final hearing.  Sometimes, the Employment Tribunal may issue Case Management Orders without first listing the matter for a Case Management Discussion. Case Management Orders often give time limits to comply with steps such as:

• providing a Schedule of Loss,
• disclosure of documents,
• creating  a bundle, agreeing contents of a Bundle
• exchange  of witness statements etc

If you require any additional information or documents from your employer that have not previously been provided, you can request a Case Management order to compel your employer to provide them.

Preliminary Hearing

The Employment Tribunal may request parties to attend a Preliminary Hearing. The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to discuss what needs to be done and whether any particular Case Management Orders need to be made.

Not all matters will have a Preliminary Hearing.  Preliminary hearings maybe listed for  discrimination or whistleblowing claims or where there is a particular issue which needs to be determined before the rest of the claim can proceed (for example a dispute about an employee’s continuous service in an unfair dismissal claim or a dispute about whether an employee is disabled in a disability discrimination claim or whether the claims have been brought within the strict time limits)

Witness Evidence, Documents and Bundle

Prior to the final hearing, you will need to prepare a trial bundle, which should be agreed with the other party to your claim. A trial bundle should contain all the documents that all parties intend to rely on and refer to at the hearing.

A party needs to know in advance what evidence the other party intends to rely on at the hearing and who that evidence is coming from. This information should be contained within a witness statement which should be typed in short numbered paragraphs and be in a logical order. It will usually have been agreed that parties will exchange the statements a certain number of days prior to the hearing in accordance with the dates set in the Case Management Orders. 

Final Hearing

At the hearing, the Employment Tribunal will hear all evidence from both sides on the facts, liability, and the compensation you are seeking. Once the Employment Tribunal has heard all the evidence, it may either give its judgment there and then, or it may reserve judgment and write to the parties later.

If you are not satisfied with the Employment Tribunal Judgement / outcome, there may be further steps available to you. You may be able to apply to the Employment Tribunal for reconsideration of the judgment, which must be done within 14 days. If you are still unsuccessful, you may be able to appeal the judgment within the strict time limit of 42 days. Please be aware, these steps are only available in very limited circumstances such as if an error of law has been made in the Employment Tribunal Judgement. If you have not already done so, you should seek legal advice before proceeding to avoid adverse cost orders.

FEES:-

Fixed fee initial Consultations - £150  (No VAT)

Reviewing and advising on Investigation / disciplinary / appeal / grievance meeting notes - Fixed fees of £250 (No VAT) per set of notes.

Reviewing paperwork and Preparation of Appeal or Grievance letters to Employers - Fixed fee of £350 per letter (No VAT)

Negotiating Settlements - Fixed fee of £250 (excluding Settlement Agreements)(No VAT)

Fees - Employment Tribunal 

Preparation of ET1 Claim and Particulars of Claim - £400 (No VAT) - (2 Hours)

Preparation of each Witness Statements - £250 (No VAT) - (1 Hour 15 mins)

Preparation of Scott Schedules - £300 (No VAT)  - (1 Hour 30 mins)

Preparation of Disclosure bundles - £500 (No VAT) - (2 Hours 30 mins)

Preparation of Schedule of Loss - £250 (No VAT) - (1 Hour 15 mins)

Solicitor fee for Representation at Case Management Discussions including preparation of List of Issues - £800 per hearing date (No VAT)

Preparation of Instructions / Brief to Counsel - £250 (NO VAT) - (1 Hour 15 mins)

Disbursements: 

There are no longer Employment Tribunal fees.

Counsel's fees will depend on each Counsel according to level of experience. A Counsel's Fee quote will be provided for Representation at Pre-Hearing Reviews and / or Full Hearings. 

Hourly rates - £200 per hour (No VAT)

No charge for emails or routine letters 

No charge for short telephone calls (up to 10 minutes)

*Firm is not registered for VAT and does not charge VAT