An employee can take you to an employment tribunal over various issues, including:

• pay
• dismissal
• discrimination

The tribunal is independent and can ask you to pay compensation or reinstate the employee if you lose the case.

Solve the dispute without a hearing

You will probably be contacted by Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) who will offer to work with you and your employee to try to solve the problem - this is called ‘conciliation’.

You can call Acas for help and advice:

Acas
Telephone: 0300 123 1100
Textphone: 18001 030 0123 1100
Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm
Saturday, 9am to 1pm
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Respond to a claim

The tribunal will let you know formally if a claim has been made against you if conciliation doesn’t work. You can respond by either:

• using the online response service
• filling in the employment tribunal response form

You must respond to the claim within 28 days.

You can request an extension giving you more time to answer the claim, but if you don’t respond, or are late, the tribunal may make a decision without a hearing.

Settlement agreements

You could also sign a settlement agreement.

This offers the employee compensation, who in return drops their claim.

The employee must get legal advice before they sign a settlement agreement. You’re not required to pay all the legal fees, but employers often do to help the process go forward.

Get help or legal advice

You may want to get legal advice if a claim is made against you.

Call the employment tribunal enquiry line for general guidance on how the process works. They can’t give legal advice.

Employment tribunal enquiry line
Telephone: 0300 123 1024 (England and Wales)
Telephone: 0141 354 8574 (Scotland)
Minicom: 01509 221 564
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If you’re in Northern Ireland

Your case will be dealt with by the Office of Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal.

You’ll be given a date for your hearing at least 14 days in advance. You’ll have to prepare documents and witnesses.

Preliminary hearings

Sometimes there will be a preliminary hearing to decide how the case will be handled, eg if more evidence is needed.

The tribunal will let you know:

• what will be discussed
• if you’ll have to give evidence or provide any extra information

Arranging documents

You must give the employee 7 days’ notice of any documents that you’ll be relying on as part of your case.

You should bring 6 copies of each document, unless told otherwise.

If the employee is part of a pension scheme, you must bring full details of the scheme to the tribunal.

If the employee is asking to be reinstated, you must say whether this is possible, and if not, the reasons why.

Organising witnesses

You must only bring witnesses to the hearing if they can give evidence directly relevant to your case.

If you call a witness and they don’t want to attend, you can ask the tribunal to order them to come. You must apply in writing, in plenty of time, giving:

• the name and address of the witness
• what the witness will say and how it will help your case
• why the witness has refused to come to the hearing

You are usually responsible for paying the witness’s costs.

The full hearing will decide:

• whether the employee wins or loses their case
• if they win, what ‘remedy’ (eg compensation, getting their job back) they will get

Bring all relevant documents and evidence to the hearing.

What happens at the hearing

You (or your representative) and the employee put your case to a panel or a judge, and answer questions.

You can give evidence by reading a statement, if you want to. You can’t do this in Scotland.

You normally get the tribunal's decision - or 'judgment' - on the day of the hearing, but it may be sent in the post a few days after the hearing.

If you win the case

In most cases, you aren’t awarded any compensation if the employee loses their case. However, if the other party has acted unreasonably, you can ask to be awarded costs by the tribunal.

Expenses

You can’t claim for expenses for going to the tribunal.

If you lose your case the tribunal can order you to:

• pay compensation
• give the employee their job back, if appropriate

If it isn’t appropriate or possible to reinstate the employee, you’ll pay compensation instead.

Paying compensation

Paying compensation is the most common outcome of a tribunal. There are usually limits to the amount of money a tribunal can award. There is no limit in cases of discrimination.

The award is payable from the day the judgment is received.

Interest is charged from the day the judgment is received, but you don’t pay interest if you pay the whole award within 14 days. If you don’t pay, you can be forced to do so - this includes being taken to court.

The tribunal works out the amount using a formula based on the employee’s age, salary and length of service.

Paying back state benefits

Sometimes you will have to pay back any Jobseeker’s Allowance or Income Support that the employee claimed while taking their case to the tribunal.

This is to prevent the employee from getting paid twice.

If this applies to you, the tribunal, then Jobcentre Plus will tell you what you need to do and how much to pay.

You may be able to:

• ask the tribunal to look at the case again
• appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal

Ask the tribunal to review the decision

Write to the tribunal within 14 days, saying why you want the decision to be reviewed. You must have a good reason, eg new evidence has turned up.

Send your letter to the tribunal office.

Appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal

You can also appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal if you think the employment tribunal made a legal mistake.

Seek legal advice if you’re unsure about this.

Ask the employment tribunal to send you the reasons for the decision, if you don’t already have them.

To appeal, fill in the notice of appeal form. Send it, with supporting documents, to the appeal tribunal office by email, fax or post.

Deadline for appealing

You must appeal within 42 days of the date:

• the decision was sent to you
• the reasons were sent to you (if you asked for these within 14 days)

Your appeal must arrive by 4pm on the final day.

Where to send your appeal

For cases in England or Wales:

Employment Appeal Tribunal
londoneat@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 7273 1041
Fax: 020 7273 1045
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Employment Appeal Tribunal
Second Floor
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London
EC4Y 8JX

For cases in Scotland:

Employment Appeal Tribunal
edinburgheat@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: 0131 225 3963
Fax: 0131 220 6694
Find out about call charges

Employment Appeal Tribunal
52 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7HF

Find out more about appealing to the Employment Appeal Tribunal.