Plans to charge people for using employment tribunals could have a huge impact on ensuring equality at work, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has said.
Before Christmas the government published its plans for charging users of employment tribunals. Under the proposals an individual will have to pay a minimum of £600 and possibly as much as £1,750 to have a discrimination claim heard at a tribunal.
Workers with a gross annual income of as little as £13,000 a year (the minimum wage for a full-time job) or couples with a joint income above £18,000 a year could have to pay towards these fees - likely to be amongst the highest fees charged under the proposed system - to pursue discrimination cases.
The TUC warned that if the plans come into law, it will be even harder in the future to get proper enforcement and compliance with the law as employers will know that they face little realistic prospect of being held to account.
Speaking at the TUC’s annual discrimination law conference at Congress House in London on 27th January 2012, Mr. Barber said: “The fight against discrimination is far from won. The coalition’s cuts are having a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable people in our society, including women, ethnic minorities and disabled people.”
Mr. Barber accused the government of pursuing a deregulatory agenda, dismissing vital rights as red tape and so-called burdens on business.
“While the government pays lip service to equality, some of its actions threaten to make Britain less equal, less fair and much less just,” Mr. Barber said. “That’s why our priorities over the coming year must be to defend legal rights and access to justice, and why we must resist draconian government plans to charge people for using employment tribunals.”
He strongly criticized the government’s plans for charging users of employment tribunals. “This is chequebook justice pure and simple and is a profoundly regressive step. As so few discrimination claims succeed at tribunal anyway, many potential claimants, particularly those who lack the support of a union, would be put off from making a claim - giving a green light to unscrupulous employers to discriminate at will. That’s something that ought to concern everyone who cares about justice, fairness and equality,” Mr. Barber said.
He appealed to all trade unionists, representatives of voluntary sector organisations, or legal professionals, to work together to address all of these challenges in the year ahead.
“The TUC will continue to do what we have always done, fighting discrimination, campaigning for fairness, and striving for equality at work and in society,” Mr. Barber said.
