Gordon Brown’s Budget plan to cut the cost of employment tribunals meets with caution from law firm

Predicted moves to cut the high cost of employment tribunals for businesses in tomorrow’s Budget should be met with some caution, law firm Hammonds has warned.

Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to announce measures that aim to settle disputes between employers and employees at an earlier stage.

The move follows a recent Department of Trade and Industry investigation into tribunals which found that improving dispute resolution and other employment-related conflict could save businesses £400m a year.

However, Hammonds is advising businesses to meet this news with caution because previous attempts have failed to reduce tribunal costs.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

Sue Nickson, head of human capital at the firm, said: “The last attempt by the government to reduce the number of tribunal claims appears to have been an abject disaster, with the number of tribunal claims now standing at the same level as before the statutory dispute procedures were introduced.

“With previous attempts at tackling this issue yet to cut the mustard businesses should not bank on reduced tribunal costs should this predicted announcement be made on Wednesday.”