Weekly Issue 424

Review of tribunal fees

The government last week announced its long-awaited review of Employment Tribunal fees to find out whether it has achieved its supposed objectives.
The original goals were threefold: transfer some of the costs from the taxpayer to Tribunal users; encourage alternative ways of resolving disputes; and maintain access to justice.

Redundant establishment

The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA) states that, if an employer proposes to make 20 or more employees redundant at “one establishment”, they have to collectively consult in advance of the dismissals. In Usdaw and ors v WW Realisation 1 Ltd (in liquidation) and Ethel Austin Ltd and anor, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that when an undertaking is made up of several entities, it is the one to which the redundant workers are assigned that constitutes the “establishment”, not the business as a whole.

Motivation

The Court of Appeal has held in CLFIS (UK) Ltd v Reynolds that an employer cannot be held liable for acts carried out by individual employees if they were not motivated by discrimination. That applies even if they relied on information from other employees who were motivated by discrimination.