Navigating employment tribunals as an SME

Employment tribunals increased by a remarkable 90 per cent since the abolishing of employment tribunal fees.

In light of employees no longer needing to pay a fee in order to make an employment tribunal claim there are no barriers to submitting a claim if employees feel they’ve been treated unfairly at work. 

However, for employers and particularly SMEs there is still some cause for concern and a need for increased awareness around the risks when dismissing individuals. 

With recent pressure on organisations to replace zero-hour contracts, we’re seeing a shift towards the use of employment contracts. The move provides ‘casual workers’ with an employee status and an entitlement to claim for unfair dismissal, redundancy payments, maternity pay and leave.