Employment Tribunal Awards Campaign

Last year Citizens Advice reported that some rogue employers were failing to adhere to tribunal decisions and were failing to pay what has been ordered because Employment Tribunals (ET) had no powers to enforce their own awards. Instead, the burden fell to the claimant who had to take complex and costly legal action in the civil courts, a process not guaranteed to be successful. Many claimants started the process but gave up in frustration. Others were too daunted to even try or lacked the means to pay the various fees.

As a consequence of a Citizens Advice national campaign calling for state led enforcement of unpaid ET awards on behalf of the claimant, letters were written to local Members of Parliament (MPs) Margaret Beckett, Mark Todd and Bob Laxton highlighting this issue. The letter asked them to support an amendment to the Employment Bill, which would see ET awards as enforceable as if they were County Court Orders. In particular the MPs were asked to raise the issue with the Minister Pat McFadden (Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs). The MPs were also invited to attend a special meeting of the Citizens Advice All Party Parliamentary Group to find out more about this issue and Citizens Advice’s proposal for reform.

In response, two of the MPs contacted Mr McFadden, directly and the third MP agreed to pursue the issue when parliament returned.

Since then Citizens Advice has published its report Justice Denied that was based on research of some 1,000 cases of unpaid ET awards dealt with by bureaux in 2007/08. Whilst the total value of these unpaid awards was over £4.5 million, most of the workers concerned were low paid, and nearly half of the unpaid awards were for less than £2,000.

In particular the report argued that closing this loophole in the Employment Tribunal system was essential if the Government was to deliver on its promises to “protect vulnerable workers” and “support good employers”. It concluded that unpaid awards should be enforced by the State, rather than by claimants, and suggested how this could be done at minimal cost to the taxpayer. After a long running campaign by Citizens Advice, the government has agreed to proposals for better enforcement of unpaid ET awards.

As a direct result of the campaign the Ministry of Justice announced on 19 May 2009 that High Court Enforcement Officers are to take on recovery of awards granted by ETs or in out-of-court settlements.

Furthermore campaigning on this issue has led to Citizens Advice being short-listed in the Charity category of this year’s Public Affairs News awards.

For more information contact:

Mrs Amanda Leadbeater
Tel: 01332 228724,
Email: amanda.leadbeater@citizensadviceandlawcentre.org