Employment Tribunal Questions

[Shakey1500]

I'd appreciate a layman's terms outline regarding timelines and process regarding an ET.

Brief outline- Our representative (non union) submitted the ET1 form on Aug 14th.

Am I right in thinking the company has to respond within 28days? (which would be today). If so, who do they respond to? The court? Our rep? Us?

If they have responded, what's next? And how long roughly till court? Any other things we need to know about in the middle? If they haven't responded what happens?

Brief answers will be fine! Thanks in advance

After receiving, and checking, your ET1 the Tribunal office will send an ET3 to the Respondent.
The Company will have 28 days from the date that the ET3 is sent to respond.
They send the completed ET3 to the Tribunal office who will check it and then send a copy to you.

Doesn't it now go to mandatory early conciliation after you submit the Et1? I think you should have been contacted by ACAS

Thank you both.

Yes, we did the initial mandatory early conciliation with ACAS and, now we've had yet another letter from ACAS acknowledging the ET1 and mentioning that any direct communication will take place between our representative and the employer. Such a stressful time

I took my ex-employer to tribunal recently, but before the legislation changed. I'm making the assumption that once you've gone through ACAS, the system is similar.

If you file an ET1, the respondent has 28 days from the date the court sends it to them to respond. If they miss the deadline, their defence can be struck out. That means that you go to hearing, but your employer isn't allowed to participate or the judge rules without hearing either party. Depending on the details of your ET1, that may or may not be good for you.

Moving on, the remit of an ET judge is very wide. My ex-employer missed the deadline by five days. Their response was allowed, on appeal (I know - makes mockery of the rules), and that was after the judge ruled their ET3 was struck out! Sadly the ruling was rescinded (for very little reason). We went all the way to 'trial'. Their ET3 was initially struck out late Dec 2013. The tribunal date was end of June 2014. It's incredibly stressful. So don't get excited that it's out of time. The judge may well allow.

For a good news story, my ex-employer settled during tribunal proceedings (although I was already two hours into giving evidence) as they were advised by their barrister they had a 70% chance of the tribunal finding against them.

Good luck! It was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. But I would do it again. As part of the compromise (I refused to sign a confidentiality agreement) all members of the Board in my previous organisation had to agree to undertake diversity training, and I received an unreserved apology. And it was worth it (although I'd add the 'award' was less than my legal fees and DH and I spent a lot of our savings 'proving discrimination')

I feel for you. Hope it goes well...

Thanks knackered glad you were happy at the outcome.

Yes, stress levels through the roof. What makes it worse is that I am also employed by the same company can you believe. Not a pleasant atmosphere for me at all

It's the vindication DH wants more than anything, that he was unfairly dismissed. He's a broken man. I rather think they thought they would get away with it, that he would shuffle away quietly. But they didn't count on me

Is it really worth risking £1000 plus costs and all the stress and hassle? What if he doesn't win?

Hermione, if the OP's DH was to withdraw his claim now he'd risk a counter claim from the employer for making a vexatious claim. Once the ET1 is filed, you're pretty much committed to see the process through.

OP, I hope it goes well for you. Sometimes these things have to be done. I claimed for indirect sex discrimination for the refusal of my flexible working request. This forced me to resign so I also claimed constructive unfair dismissal. My employer put a PCP (provision, criterion or practice) in place that stated that my job, and others in my department, could only be done on a f/t basis over five days. Sadly, this was forcing women (one of my direct reports lost her job for the same reason at the same time as me) to resign after mat leave and the organisation (a charity) was losing talented staff.

The outcome of my claim is that my ex-employer now allows flexible working. It didn't help me, but it changed the charity for the better, and I felt passionately about that.

Good luck!

Good for you knackered

Hermoine Yes, absolutely we feel it's worth it. He was treated despicably, why should they get away with it? Obviously there is a chance he will lose but hopefully, justice will prevail.