Following a recent flare-up in the number of people taking their employers to employment tribunals, experts are warning businesses to make sure that their human resources processes are unassailable.

Azets is the UK’s largest regional accountancy and specialist business advisor to SMEs and hugely experienced Ms Hannah-Jane Dobbie - a fully qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Head of HR Consultancy - helped launch the firm’s hands-on ‘one-stop shop’ HR consultancy service for SMEs early last year.

Ms Dobbie explained that claims for failing to follow a proper redundancy process are wrongful dismissal; unfair dismissal; discrimination - with additional claims which can be made for injury to feelings.

She said:

“Employees with grievances appear to be far more likely to take matters further than they would have been in the past. And the onus is on the employer to disprove the claim, rather than the employee to prove it, which can be difficult.

I believe it is very much due to the state of the candidate-driven recruitment market. People know that they can walk out of a job, make a claim - and still walk into another job, potentially quite quickly, especially if they have an in-demand skill set.”

The ACAS code of practice on discipline and grievance is particularly important as if the employer is found to have not followed it then any award made at a tribunal can be increased by up to 25 per cent.

Ms Dobbie stated:

“We are in a society where people don’t necessarily accept the answers they are given any longer and will challenge their employers and try to get more – most of it seems to be for financial gain. We are also seeing larger claims than we would normally expect to see.

There are a lot more claims coming forward which would likely never have got to the tribunal hearing stage previously.”

In 2013, a basic fee of £12,000 to a claimant for a tribunal was introduced, resulting in a 70 per cent drop in cases. However, after a campaign in 2017, it was repealed by the Supreme Court and case numbers then rose sharply again.

Ms Dobbie said:

“Many more employees are taking a chance on taking tribunal action. It doesn’t cost them anything to go to a tribunal. However, the average cost for fighting a tribunal for an employer – without including any awards made – is around £10,000 per day once you include legal fees and the management time and resources taken up dealing with such matters.”

She added:

“I know of several incidences of SME clients who have ended up paying out sums of money in a settlement just to make a situation go away, even though they know they have done nothing wrong.” 

Ms Dobbie’s advice to SMEs and other businesses is therefore to be scrupulous in dealing with all human resources matters.