What are the Rights of an Employer on a Wrongful Claim?

As an employer, there may be a situation wherein you may have to face an employment tribunal claim made by an employee or somebody else (job applicants, trade unions, etc). There could be a number of reasons for such a claim, including pay disputes, dismissal, or discrimination at the workplace.

Therefore, it is advisable to be constantly aware of your surroundings and create work ethics and policies that adhere to the stipulations made under employment law in UK.

However, an employment tribunal will also give you an equal opportunity to explain your case, before deciding a decision. This article will look at your rights as an employer when facing a wrongful claim.

Early conciliation

Firstly, if an employee wants to take you to an employment tribunal you will be contacted by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service(ACAS). They will offer to work with you and the claimant (in this case, the employee) to come up with a solution, with regards to the whole issue, without going to a tribunal. This process is called ‘conciliation’. As per the stipulations of employment law, no claim will stand in front of the tribunal if conciliation is not done prior to the hearing.

Responding to a claim

The employment tribunal will send you a letter (also known as the ‘response pack’) in case a claim has been made against you and early conciliation has not worked. Subsequently, you may choose to reply either online, by completing and sending the response pack back, or by downloading and completing the response form, before sending it to the tribunal office that is dealing with the case. The law requires you to read the response guidance before filling in the form and send a response within a period of 28 days to the tribunal.

If you need some more time to draft a response you can ask the tribunal. However, avoid being late or not sending any response at all, otherwise, the employment tribunal may make a decision against you without conducting a formal hearing.

Employment law in UK also entitles you to try and settle the case at any given time, by offering to pay an amount as compensation to the claimant. This is known as a ‘settlement agreement’.

The hearing process

The tribunal will give you a minimum of 14 days’ notice prior to the hearing through a letter of confirmation. During this time you must prepare and arrange documents alongside any witnesses to attend the hearing in advance.

Subsequently, you will have to be present in front of the tribunal for an initial, or ‘Preliminary’ hearing, with the judge. It is at this time you will be asked to decide the date and time of a hearing, the duration of the hearing, and whether you will need to give evidence or any extra information to the tribunal.

Arrange documents

As a respondent, you can ask the claimant to provide documents that will help you with the case, and vice versa. Such documents may include a contract of employment, payslips, details of a pension scheme as well as notes from relevant meetings. Generally, the tribunal will issue a legal order to set out the timetable for both the parties to exchange the documents. The tribunal will also send a letter to inform you about the number of copies of each document to bring to the hearing.

Organise witnesses

You can bring witnesses to the employment tribunal hearing if they can give direct relevant evidence to the case. If you ask a witness to attend the hearing and they are reluctant to do so, you can ask the tribunal to furbish an order, asking them to attend. For this, you will need to apply in writing to the tribunal office and provide the name and address of the witness, details of what the witness might be able to say, its relevance to the case, and the reason why the witness has refused to attend (if they have given you one).

Losing the Employment Tribunal Claim

If you lose the claim, the tribunal may order you to take certain actions, based on the type of your case. Such actions may include giving the claimant their old job back, paying unfair dismissal compensation, witness expenses, and damages or loss of earnings.

Paying compensation

Paying compensation is one of the most common outcomes of an employment tribunal claim. While there are limits to the amount of compensation a tribunal may award, there is no limit in cases of discrimination (racial, disability, maternity etc). Furthermore, the calculation of the compensation amount depends upon the financial loss incurred by the claimant as a result of your actions.

Whilst calculating the interest, a tribunal may take into consideration the day when the judgment is received. However, you won’t have to pay any interest if you choose to pay the full compensation award within a period of 14 days. If you refuse to pay compensation, the claimant may take you to court and force you to pay. You may also incur a fine if you don’t pay.

Pay back state benefits

You may also have to pay back any Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, or Employment Support Allowance (ESA) that the claimant could ask for in front of the tribunal. This is to prevent the claimant from getting paid twice. You will be informed about your responsibilities, in making the claim and the total amount to pay, by the Compensation Recovery Unit and the tribunal.

Disagreeing with a tribunal decision

Employment law in the UK also entitles the employers to ask the tribunal to reconsider their decision. For this, you will need to write to the tribunal office within a period of 14 days after receiving the decision. Furthermore, you will need to provide a substantial reason for reconsidering. You may cite that:

• the tribunal has made a mistake in reaching its decision;
• you were not informed about the hearing;
• you have new evidence;

As an employer, you may also make an appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) if you believe that the employment tribunal has indeed made a legal mistake.