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I am delighted to be here today at my second Annual General Meeting of
the Council of Employment Tribunal Members' Associations.
You will recall that at this time last year I had only recently taken
up my Ministerial post and was obviously a little green and unfamiliar
with the work of the Employment Tribunals. I am pleased to say that over
the course of the last year I have gained a much better understanding of
the role of Tribunal members and the many challenges that you face. I
would like to thank Nanci Downey for inviting me to attend this year's
annual general meeting.
As always, on these occasions, we have the opportunity to look back
over the past year and to look forward to the tasks that are on the
agenda for the coming year. The Employment Tribunals have continued to
be very busy over the past year dealing with an increasingly high level
of applications and the introduction of two new discrimination
jurisdictions.
We are about to enter a period of major change for the Employment
Tribunals. New Dispute Resolution regulations and new tribunal Rules of
Procedure come into force in October. These will introduce a number of
new processes and procedures. It is important that we fully embrace the
new ways of working and grasp the opportunity for change that they
present.
In 2003/04 the Employment Tribunals received over 115,000
applications - up from 98,000 in 2002/03. Although this increase was
almost entirely due to multiple applications, the pressures on the
system remain high. I also know that cases are becoming increasingly
complex in nature and require longer to process and hear. We have also
yet to see the true impact of the two new discrimination regulations on
Sexual Orientation and Religion or Belief that came into force in
December 2003.
With this as a backdrop, it is impressive that the Employment
Tribunals Service was able to increase its overall performance on the
two main time-to-first hearing targets. This was a considerable
achievement that demonstrates the high level of service that the
Employment Tribunals offer and the hard work and commitment by all
involved. I want to express my thanks to all those who have contributed
to this achievement, and in particular to the lay members, staff and
Chairmen for all their efforts over the past year.
The Dispute Regulations that come into force in October this year will
bring significant changes in the way employment disputes are handled at
work and will affect how Employment Tribunal applications are made and
how they pass through the various stages of the judicial process.
They will introduce minimum internal disciplinary and grievance
procedures, which will help encourage employees to raise disputes with
their employer before applying to a Tribunal. The new legislation now
provides a route within the workplace, which gives both parties the
opportunity to reach an amicable settlement of individual grievances
without the need for litigation. The new procedures encourage a culture
of communication and dialogue in the workplace, which has got to be good
for business and employees alike.
The Employment Tribunals will also have an important role to play in
embedding the statutory procedures in the workplace.
The revised Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure are due to be laid
before Parliament this month. I am grateful for CETMA's response to the
public consultation on the draft regulations earlier this year. Having
carefully considered all the responses received, the Government Response
will be published shortly and copies will be sent to you.
The changes to the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure have arisen
from the provisions of the Employment Act 2002, from recommendations of
the Employment Tribunal System Taskforce and suggestions offered by the
Tribunal Presidents. All of these are designed to facilitate a more
efficient running of the Tribunal system. The Tribunal Rules of
Procedure have also been re-structured and re-drafted to make them
easier to read.
The revised regulations contain a number of measures to help
streamline current Tribunal procedures. The Presidents of the Employment
Tribunals will have new powers to issue Practice Directions. With
standard directions to guide them Tribunals will be able to take a more
consistent approach to procedural decision-making and this in turn will
provide some certainty to users that they will be dealt with
consistently regardless of geographical location.
Getting the right information from parties at the start of
proceedings has always been fundamental to the Tribunal's ability to
progress cases quickly and efficiently. The regulations have now given
the Secretary of State power to prescribe the form in which a party
should present an Originating application or Notice of Appearance. New
more user-friendly tribunal claim and response forms will be introduced
in October and will become mandatory from April 2005. The prescribed
forms will help ensure that both parties have more details about the
case and these will provide more information to the Tribunal at an early
stage to assist the Tribunal's case management decisions.
The new pre-acceptance procedure will enable claims to be rejected by
the Tribunal Chairman if for example the claim does not include all the
relevant required information or the Tribunal does not have jurisdiction
to consider the claim. Together with a similar more rigorous
pre-acceptance procedure for responses these changes will allow the
Tribunals to operate with greater efficiency. Similarly, the
introduction of fixed periods of conciliation will focus parties' minds
early on to the possibility of settlement.
I am conscious that you are keen to be kept informed of developments
and I am able to report that under the revised regulations where an
issue of fact is to be determined at a pre-hearing review, lay members
will be involved if this is requested by one or more of the parties and
the chairman considers it is in the interests of justice.
I'm sure the Members welcome any moves to give Tribunal panels the
tools to improve the management of cases which come before them. Any
changes to the law are of course only as good as those who are have the
responsibility for implementing them and it is you the Members who are
key players in ensuring that the changes have a positive impact. We have
already seen that the powers given to Tribunals by the Rule changes in
2001 have allowed Tribunals to deal with weak and vexatious claims more
robustly. I hope that these new powers will enhance the Tribunals' scope
to deal fairly and swiftly with the cases that are brought before them.
You will be aware that following Sir Andrew Leggatt's review of all
Tribunals, the previous Lord Chancellor announced in March last year
that the Government had decided to create a Unified Tribunals Service.
The transfer of the Employment Tribunals Service to the Department
for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) to form part of a single Tribunals
Service is now scheduled to take place in April 2006. The Government has
today published a White Paper entitled 'Transforming Public Services:
Complaints, Redress and Tribunals'. This is our formal response to Sir
Andrew Leggatt's Review of Tribunals and the paper sets out in detail
our plans for the creation of the new Tribunals Service.
The White Paper recognises the challenges of delivering both
administrative justice and justice in the workplace. The Employment
Tribunals and Acas have already developed a successful partnership in
helping to resolve employment disputes without the need for a hearing.
This partnership obviously needs to be maintained as part of the new
system and there is much administrative tribunals can learn from the way
Employment Tribunals already operate.
Employment Tribunals however, are different from administrative
tribunals and I fully expect that special nature to be reflected in the
design of the new organisation. Your Members have a great deal of
knowledge and experience to share and I encourage CETMA to take an
active part in the process.
The Employment Tribunal System Taskforce now operates as a strategic
body to monitor the implementation of the recommendations it made in the
"Moving Forward" report.
Meeting bi-annually the Taskforce has recently convened for the third
time. It receives and reviews progress reports from the Presidents of
the Employment Tribunals, ETS, Acas and departmental officials from DTI
and the DCA. The Taskforce, like CETMA, has also participated in
consultation exercises on the revisions to the Employment Tribunal Rules
of Procedure and the new prescribed forms.
The Taskforce view the new Rules of Procedure as pivotal in creating
an environment in which to progress its vision of an Employment Tribunal
System which is fit for purpose for the 21st Century. And one that is
able to deal with cases in a just, fair and proportionate manner. The
revised Rules should act as a tool to move people's perceptions and to
shape the future image of the Tribunals.
The Taskforce recognises that the environment in which the Employment
Tribunal System operates is already different from when it made its
report and that changes not contemplated at the time will further alter
the landscape. I have already mentioned the transfer of the Employment
Tribunals Service to the DCA. Another change is the greater emphasis for
increased efficiencies across the whole of the public sector.
The Taskforce has been pleased to note that progress has been made to
date especially in areas which impact positively on the experience of
users of the Employment Tribunal System. Some noteworthy examples are:
¨ the efforts being made by the Presidents in improving case
management;
¨ the successful bid by ETS and Acas for funds for a joint caseflow
project, and the planning which is currently being undertaken to
introduce an integrated IT system;
¨ the inauguration of a National User Group.
The establishment of the co-ordinating body comprising the Tribunal
Presidents and the Chief Executives of ETS and Acas has brought
improvements to the co-ordination of the System and has facilitated
communication between its component parts. However, much work remains to
be done to deliver the Taskforce's vision for the Employment Tribunal
System and work will continue in the coming year.
It has been a very busy year, both in terms of workload and in terms
of the initiatives which will act to change the way in which Tribunals
work. I hope I have been able to give you some insight into the
challenges that we face in the near future.
The next year will be a year of significant change for the Tribunals
as the changes to processes and systems are introduced. Your Members
will be at the forefront of this change and I have every confidence that
at this time next year we will be able to look back and report on the
successful implementation of the new regulations. Although resources are
limited the Government is committed to improving service delivery and
together we aim to provide a Tribunal system that fully meets the
expectations of its users.
Finally - I would like to say thank you to you and your colleagues
for all your hard work over the past year and wish you all the very best
for the year ahead.
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