Five Common Employment Tribunal Claims

As an employer, you may face an employment tribunal claim when your employee believes you have acted unlawfully towards them. It is essential that, where possible, you take steps to avoid a claim against you. However, you should take any claims against you seriously, as they can not only be costly but damage your business’ reputation. To limit your risk of an employment tribunal claim, therefore, you should be aware of key grievances your employees may raise with you and how to remediate these issues. This article will explain five common reasons an employer may face an employment tribunal claim in England. 

1. Failure to Follow the Working Time Directive

Over the past ten years, the most common reason employers face employment tribunals is because they do not follow the rules set out in the Working Time Directive. These rules govern issues such as:

• the amount of hours you can ask your employees to work;
• your employees’ entitlement to rest breaks at work;
• rest hours between your employees’ shifts; and
• how many paid holidays they are entitled to. 

Examples of ways to ensure you comply with these obligations include:

• giving your staff a break of 30 minutes away from their workstation when they work for more than six hours; and
• ensuring that your staff do not work for more than 48 hours per week unless they opt-out of this legal restriction.

You can ask your employees to opt out of the Working Time Directive. If they choose to do so, they can opt back in at any time. 

2. Unauthorised Wage Deductions

A common reason employers face an employment tribunal is due to making an unauthorised deduction to their employee’s wages. In fact, it is the second most common reason that leads to an employer facing a tribunal claim.

An unauthorised deduction to your employee’s wages is when you withhold any of your employee’s wages but do not give their consent or any legal reasons to withhold them. As an employer, you are legally required to pay your employees their wages on time unless there is a legal reason permitting otherwise. 

3. Unfair Dismissal 

The third most common reason employers face tribunal claims is where they unfairly dismiss their employees. Unfair dismissal is where you dismiss your employee without one of the five legal fair reasons or without following a fair procedure when dismissing them. 

An employee may raise an unfair dismissal claim because:

• they were dismissed due to whistleblowing;
• their flexible working request meant you dismissed them; or
• you did not correctly follow redundancy procedures.

4. Age Discrimination

Employers can also face an employment tribunal following unlawful discrimination against an employee based on their age. Age is one of the nine protected characteristics that you must not discriminate against in an employment relationship. This is not restricted to your employees but includes other workers, such as freelancers and contractors in your business.

As you are also obligated to ensure others in your workplace do not discriminate based on age. Notably, it is best practice to regularly review your workplace policies to ensure your staff have adequate information regarding discrimination rules and processes your business adopts. 

5. Non-compliance With the Part-Time Workers Regulations

Not following the part-time workers’ regulations is another common reason employers get taken to employment tribunals. These regulations are in place to ensure that part-time workers get treated equally compared to full-time workers.

For example, you are obliged to treat your part-time workers the same in terms of:

• rates of pay which include, for example, maternity and paternity pay as well as salary;
• holidays;
• training and career opportunities; and
• pension benefits and opportunities.

Key Takeaways

As an employer, you should do your best to avoid employment tribunal claims. Such claims can disrupt your business’ operations, even if you manage to defend the claim. If you lose, you may face substantial civil penalties, and some claims can result in criminal proceedings. Therefore, these grievances, if unresolved, can harm the reputation of your business whilst disrupting its day-to-day operations. Some common tribunal claims you can work to avoid are:

• a failure to follow the Working Time Directive;
• unauthorised wage deductions;
• unfair dismissal;
• age discrimination; and
• non-compliance with the Part-Time Workers Regulations.

If you need help understanding why an employer can get taken to an employment tribunal in England, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.