Tribunal judges to sit alone in unfair dismissal cases

The Government has published legislation, which is to take effect in April 2012, allowing employment tribunal judges to sit alone in unfair dismissal cases, without wing members.

Wing members are generally lay persons without legal qualification, but who are typically experienced small to medium size business owners, HR professionals or union representatives.

There are benefits of having wing members as part of the tribunal process.  The wing members tend to provide a non-legalistic perspective to cases with particular focus on what is and what is not acceptable practice and conduct in the workplace. The wing members also provide a good sounding board for employment tribunal judges.

At present, employment tribunal judges can sit alone in cases concerning holiday pay, unlawful deductions from wages and pre-hearing reviews and case management discussions. Of course in civil proceedings, it is common to see judges sitting alone and making decisions on facts.

Interestingly and understandably so, ACAS and the CBI support the use of wing members in the employment tribunal process

It appears the motive behind the change is one of saving cost and allegedly to speed up the process, but will this be at the expense of the proper administration of justice?

What are your views on this? Please forward these to us by email at n.aftab@endeavourpartnership.com