Employment Tribunal Claims

Reasons for bringing Employment Tribunal claims

Employment Tribunal claims generally cover:

• Being dismissed unfairly, or where a dismissal was a disproportionate response to the misconduct in question;
• being forced to resign following a discriminatory act by a fellow employee and/or manager; or
• resigning due to a breakdown in the working relationship. This might be due to a serious one-off incident; or due to a culmination of seemingly minor incidents which, when taken in their entirety, constitute a repudiatory breach of contract.

Settlement

• If the working relationship has broken down irretrievably, is it sensible to start discussions leading to a Settlement Agreement by instigating a “protected conversation” which provides for ‘without prejudice’ negotiations in certain circumstances?

Employment Tribunal proceedings

• Typically proceedings are complex and time-consuming and often involve “strategic” pleading involving multiple heads of claims.
• Claims can now take up to a year to get to a full hearing which provides an opportunity to settle early particularly if the employee is likely to fully mitigate within that time period.

High Court litigation

• Arises from wrongful dismissal, bonus claims or enforcement of restrictive covenants.
• Disputes tend to be extremely lawyer intensive, fast moving and, as a result, extremely expensive.