Many Employment Tribunal claims amount to legitimised blackmail

Janet Crawford, Executive Chair of Angel Human Resources plc has hit out against the Employment Tribunal system in spite of a reported fall in the number of Employment Tribunal in England and Wales last year. ëEven though the number of reported claims has fallen, this masks the fact that employment legislation is unacceptably biased in favour of the employee. Employers are at risk of being blackmailed daily by ex-employees who bring tribunal cases that are completely without merit in the hope of receiving a unjustifiable payment from their ex-employers,í she commented.

To back her claim, Janet Crawford cited an example involving her own 20m turnover recruitment business, which was forced to incur legal costs of 2000 to deal with a case involving a temporary worker supplied to work at senior level within a public sector organisation. ëHaving told the client that she was leaving, she claimed unfair dismissal against both our business and the client, even though it was she who had taken the decision to leave,í said Janet Crawford. ëShe also claimed sex discrimination on the absurd basis that we had taken account of the clientís comments as opposed to her own. Finally and inexplicably, she made a claim under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. The tribunal decided at an initial hearing that the unfair dismissal and sex discrimination claims had no merit and dismissed them. However, it allowed her time to produce evidence for her claim under Public Interest Disclosure Act and extended that when she failed to do so.í

The individual later dropped her claim, but the tribunal was reluctant to award costs against the individual. Angel therefore faces a hefty legal bill. Janet Crawford added, ëThe individual had informed a number of people that she had brought the claim to ëget a few weeksí wagesí, and that had we offered her payment she would have dropped the claim at the outset. We had no reason to do so, but with the system so heavily biased against employers, there is a difficult dilemma. Should employers give way and pay off individuals who make spurious tribunal claims, or should they stick to their principles and defend their business against what amounts to legitimised blackmail?í

Angel Human Resources is pressing for the Government to redress the unfair balance in employment tribunals, and introduce legislation which ensures that individuals who bring groundless claims are made responsible for the costs of dealing with them. ëThatís only fair,í commented Janet Crawford. ëItís time the Government took action to show that it supports responsible employers.í