Legal advice news: Employers 'to pay' if they lose tribunal

Employees may soon wish to seek free legal advice if proposed changes to the employment tribunal system are made.

A new government consultation contains proposals which suggest organisations who employ others should have to pay the exchequer if they fail in an employment tribunal case.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills last week revealed the Resolving Workplace Disputes consultation, which intends to break down barriers to recruitment and reduce the number of cases going to employment tribunals.

This paper suggests that employers should pay financial penalties to the government so the system can have some of the costs incurred by a case recompensed, suggesting that a company may want to seek professional legal advice before a case.

"While we recognise that business will be opposed to such a proposal, we take the view that it will encourage employers to have greater regard to what is required of them in law and, ultimately, will lead to fewer workplace disputes and employment tribunal claims," the paper read.

Philip Henson, an employment partner at a solicitors, told Realbusiness.co.uk that these proposals will result in a rise in workplace mediation.

Published by Phil Hammond