Employment tribunal in 2022: how to make a claim or get a refund

Can I make a claim to an employment tribunal? If you are employed and you are treated in an unfair manner, you can make a claim to an employment tribunal. If you win, you may even be able to receive compensation from your employer. Your Benefits will tell you everything you need to know about employment tribunal claims.

Employment tribunal rules: when can I make a claim?

You could be able to make an employment tribunal claim. In fact, you could do this if your employer, trade union or potential employer treated you in a way that is not legal.

Important

There are several things that can be qualified as ‘unlawful treatment’. For example, this includes your employer or employees discriminating against you. Your employer may also unfairly dismiss you. Lastly, they may reduce your pay unlawfully.

An employer may have discriminated against you. In fact, there are certain protected characteristics that an employer may not discriminate against. They are as follows:

Protected characteristics in the UK in 2022
Characteristic	Is it a protected characteristic? (and thus illegal to discriminate against it)
Sexual orientation	Yes
Personal belief or religion	Yes
Sex	Yes
Race (which includes national, ethnic origin, nationality or colour)	Yes
Being pregnant, or on a benefit like maternity leave	Yes
Having a disability	Yes
Being in a civil partnership or marriage	Yes
Having undergone gender reassignment	Yes
Age	Yes
Education	No

Something unlawful may happen to you. If this is the case, you typically need to make a claim within 3 months. Do not wait later than this amount of time. Additionally, note that an employment tribunal is not the government.

The employment tribunal will listen to you and the person that you are making your claim against. This is the ‘claimant‘ and ‘respondent‘, respectively. Additionally, there are other ways to manage a problem at your workplace. You may, for example, raise a grievance.

Employment tribunal claim: what should I do before?

There are certain things that you need to do in order to make a tribunal employment claim. In fact, you need to tell the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) prior to you making the claim.

You could even settle the dispute, without using an employment tribunal. In this case, you will be able to do this using the ‘Early Conciliation’ service provided by Acas. However, this method may not work. Then, you will receive an early conciliation certificate. This will be helpful in your claim.

You may receive an early conciliation certificate. Then, will have a certain amount of time to make your employment tribunal claim. More specifically, you will have one month to make your claim.

Employment tribunal procedures rules: how can I make a claim?

Making a tribunal employment claim is pretty straightforward. In fact, you can make a claim online. Otherwise, you can also make a claim by post. If you want to apply online, you can do so on the Gov.UK website.

Disclaimer

You could be a whistleblower. Then, there are certain things that apply to you in terms of protection, and what you can and cannot do.

If you live in Northern Ireland, there is a different method to make a claim to an employment tribunal. In fact, you can send an email to mail@employmenttribunalsni.org.

You could also make a claim by post. Then, you will need to fill out and send a claim form. More specifically, you need to download the ‘Employment Tribunal claim form for single claimants’ form from the Gov.UK website.

Then, once you downloaded the form, you will need to fill it out and send it. There is no upfront fee in order to make your claim to an employment tribunal. This is the case regardless of what is indicated on the form.

Then, you will need to send your form to a certain address. If you live in Wales or England, you will need to send your employment tribunal claim to the following address:

Employment Tribunal Central Office
PO Box 10218
Leicester
LE1 8EG

However, if you want to apply from Scotland, you will need to send your form to the following address:

Employment Tribunal Central Office
PO Box 27105
Glasgow
G2 9JR

What if I can’t use a computer by myself?

You may not be able to use a computer without the help of other individuals. Then, you can use the employment tribunal talk-through service. In fact, you will need certain things to do this. This includes your ‘early conciliation certificate from Acas. If you do not have one, you will need to explain why that is.

You will need to include information about your employment tribunal claim. In fact, this includes things like who is involved in the claim, what dates are concerned, and the background of your claim.

What happens after I made a claim to the employment tribunal?

Your employer, or whoever you are making your claim against, is the ‘respondent’. Once you make your claim, they will need to respond to your claim in writing no more than 28 days after you made your claim.

The respondent will have a chance to give their side of the story. Then, the employment tribunal will decide if your claim warrants a full hearing or not. However, the respondent may not give a response. Then, it’s possible that the employment tribunal takes a decision without a full hearing.

There will first be a ‘preliminary hearing’. This is an initial hearing, which can be done via video, by phone, or in person. Then, the judge will choose if your claim is good enough to go any further. If so, on what date and time the meeting will take place will be determined. Lastly, they will decide the length of time that the hearing should take.

Additionally, you can ask for documents from your respondent. However, they can also ask for documents from you. In fact, this could include any of the following:

Notes taken during meetings that occurred at your workplace;
Information about your pension schemes;
Documents documenting your pay;
Your employment contract.

If you need to exchange documents, this will be laid out in a timetable set out by the employment tribunal. Then, you will receive a letter, which will tell you the number of copies that you need to bring for each document.

Can I bring witnesses to my employment tribunal claim?

You may be able to bring witnesses to your employment tribunal claim. In fact, you can do this as long as said witnesses can bring relevant information to your claim.

You may have asked for a witness to attend your employment tribunal hearing, and they did not do so. Then, you can ask the court to force them to come. Furthermore, this needs to be done in writing.

If you need to ask the court to bring a witness to your hearing, you will need to provide some information. First, their address and full name. Second, what information your witness would be able to provide. Third, why said witness did not want to come.

Your witness may live abroad. Then, you must notify the court whenever you can. Indeed, your witness will be able to join the hearing live through video or a call. You will have to indicate where the witnesses live. Additionally, you will need to indicate the type of evidence that the witness will give to the hearing.

Note that, in most cases, you will have to pay for the employment tribunal costs of the witness.

Employment tribunal costs: can I get a refund?

You could be eligible for a refund of your employment tribunal costs. This is only the case if you paid your fees during a certain time. More specifically, you are eligible if you paid your employment tribunal costs at an Employment Tribunal or Employment Appeals Tribunal, and did so between the dates of 29 July 2013 and 26 July 2017.

You can apply online, or by post or email. You are able to claim online if certain things apply to you. First, your name needs to have stayed the same since you made the claim. Second, you need to have made the claim against only a single employer. Third, you need to have a bank account in the United Kingdom.

The three conditions above may not apply to you. If this is the case, you may instead ask for a refund by post or by email. Then, you need to show in your application the total amount that made up your employment tribunal costs. Otherwise, if you are eligible, you can make your claim online on the Gov.UK website.

If you want to apply by post or by email, the form you need to fill out depends on the reason for which you paid your employment tribunal costs. You may have made your own claim and paid your own costs.

There were below 11 people in your claim, you were in a joint claim, and were the ‘lead claimant’. Otherwise, you may have had a claim made against you, and had to pay the employment tribunal costs of another person, or paid other costs.

If one of the previous conditions applies to you, you will need to fill out form 1/2 CR. You can find it on the Gov.UK website.

What if I am in a different situation?

You may be in a different situation. In fact, someone else may have made the claim for you, and you paid their employment tribunal costs for them. Or, you were in a joint claim with more than 10 other people, and were the lead claimant.

If this is the case for you, you will need to complete form 3-S. In fact, you can find it on the Gov.UK website.

On top of making an employment tribunal claim, there could be multiple benefits that you are entitled to. Then, you may increase the number of payments that you receive. If so, Your Benefits can help. In fact, we write many articles to help you know what you can claim. Many are linked throughout.

Additionally, we provide a free simulator which can show you all the aid that you are entitled to. In fact, you may be missing out on payments that you should receive. Then, don’t hesitate to use our free service to see what other benefits you could be able to claim today.

Employment tribunal costs: where do I need to send my completed refund forms?

If you live in Wales or England, you can send your form by email at etrefunds@justice.gov.uk. Otherwise, you can send it to the following address:

Employment Tribunal – England and Wales
Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 10218
Leicester
LE1 8EG

However, you may live in Scotland. If this is the case you can send your completed form by email at glasgowet@justice.gov.uk. Otherwise, you can send your form by post at:

Employment Tribunal – Scotland
Customer Contact Centre
PO Box 27105
Glasgow
G2 9JR

Employment tribunal decisions: what if I win my case?

You may make an employment tribunal claim and win. If this is the case, the court can order the losing party to do a number of things. In fact, they can order them to pay you compensation. Additionally, they may order them to give you a refund for the expenses incurred from you paying for the costs of your witness.

The court may order your employer to give you better working conditions. If it applies, they may even order your employer to give back your job.

The court may order the losing party to give you compensation. Then, how much you could get depends on a multitude of factors. In fact, it could depends how much you got, how long you worked for your employer or your age.

Disclaimer

The amount of compensation you are entitled to also depends on the money that you estimate to have lost because of what the respondent in the case did to you. Lastly, it depends on what type of case it is.

What if the respondent doesn’t want to pay?

The respondent may not want to pay. If this is the case, first try to come in contact with them to try to resolve the situation. If this does not work, you can ask the court to force payment from them.

Otherwise, you can also ask the government to have them named and fined online. To do so, you can use the ‘Employment Tribunal penalty enforcement form’. You can find it on the Gov.UK website.

However, it may be the case that the respondent filed an appeal. If they have not yet done so, it could be the case that they are about to. Then, you cannot force them to pay through the courts or government. However, they can only appeal no later than 42 days following the employment tribunal decision.

What else should I know?

If you are eligible for this, you should also know what national insurance is. You can learn more with Your Benefits or Citizens Advice, for example. They are a registered charity, which can improve your experience with your search.

You may also want to learn about redundancy payments, equal pay, types of claim, legal advice time limits and email address.