Second challenge to Tribunal fees goes down

In February 2014 the Union’s initial challenge to the introduction of fees failed but they were granted permission to pursue the matter to the Court of Appeal. The Court indicated that if further information collated suggested there was a correlation between the introduction of fees and the decline in claims, this could be revisited. Following publication of further statistics which evidenced the drop in the number of claims, rather than appealing to the Court of Appeal, UNISON made a fresh application for judicial review to the High Court.

However, the High Court again rejected UNISON’s argument that the introduction of fees breached the EU law principle of effectiveness. While the statistics showed that fees had made Claimants less willing to bring claims, there was no evidence to demonstrate that a particular Claimant has been unable to bring a claim and so the Court could not conclude that the fees rendered any employment rights derived from EU law ineffective. The Court also did not consider that the statistics showed that women, ethnic minorities or disabled people were placed at a disadvantage as a result of having to pay fees. The remission of fees system is designed to ameliorate the effect of fees for those with little financial means and the Court overall considered that any discriminatory effect of the fee system was justified and proportionate.

This legal update is provided for general information purposes only and should not be applied to specific circumstances without prior consultation with us.

For further details on any of the issues covered in this update please contact Gemma Ospedale, Partner in Employment on 020 7583 2222.