Expanding rights, expanding challenges – can Tribunals keep pace with employment law reform?

This blog post was co-authored with Shannon Willett.

With the Employment Rights Bill likely to complete its passage through Parliament in early November, focus is starting to turn towards implementation of the new and expanded rights that it will bring. But the rights themselves are only part of the picture – proponents of the reforms would say that, if protections for employees are to be effective, they need to be backed up by accessible routes for employees to enforce those rights. 

It’s that theme of enforcement that has featured in various press reports in recent weeks. Rumours of the potential reintroduction of Employment Tribunal fees made it into press reports in early October, before they were quickly quashed by the government last week, with the deputy prime minister David Lammy saying “it will remain free to bring a case to an employment tribunal, ensuring everyone, no matter their means, can stand up for their rights at work.” Cue much relief from trade unions. 

Jumping to the other end of the Employment Tribunal lifecycle, the ability of claimants to recoup Tribunal awards has also been hitting the headlines. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) has published data indicating that since 2016 over 7,000 workers have sought help from the Employment Tribunal penalty enforcement scheme to recover unpaid Tribunal awards and legally binding settlements. According to TBIJ’s report (based on data obtained through a freedom of information request), those workers asked for help to recover awards and settlements totalling more than £46 million, with nearly £36 million remaining unpaid, and TBIJ noting many companies are dissolved or become insolvent before workers can claim their awards. 

How do these stark statistics of non-payment sit alongside the Employment Rights Bill? The Bill contains wide-ranging reforms to workplace rights and obligations, including several new types of claim and an expansion of those eligible to bring some existing claims. Under one of the Bill’s key reforms, unfair dismissal will become a “day one” right resulting in an estimated 9 million more people becoming eligible for ordinary unfair dismissal protection. 

Concerns about the impact of these changes on the Tribunal system are well known. It is no secret that the system has been under increasing strain – according to the latest Tribunal statistics quarterly, there were approximately 45,000 open single cases at the end of March 2025 and that caseload increased by 32% compared to the same period in 2023/2024. 

With a host of new types of claim and eligible claimants on the way under the Bill, it remains to be seen how the already overloaded Tribunal service will be able to manage an inevitable increase in the number of claims issued. Will we see further delays as a result? Prompt outcomes in Tribunal cases ensure that claimants’ rights are upheld (with speedy resolution also perhaps increasing the likelihood of Tribunal awards being paid out) whilst also ensuring that good employers faced with unmeritorious claims are spared the unnecessary time and costs caused by delays waiting for such claims to be dismissed. 

Is the answer to these problems a greater emphasis on resolution of disputes before they reach the Tribunal? Under the Bill, the time limit for bringing most claims is set to double from three months to six. Some suggest that this change will allow the parties more time to explore settlement either directly between each other or via Acas early conciliation (which is a pre-requisite to a claimant bringing a claim). Anecdotally, however, there appears to be an increasing number of instances of Acas issuing the early conciliation certificate at the end of the six-week conciliation period without Acas having made contact with the parties to facilitate settlement discussions during this time. 

With Tribunal cases taking longer to make their way through the system and the assistance of Acas to potentially broker a deal not guaranteed, there will be even greater focus on nipping potential disputes in the bud at an early stage (or, better still, avoiding them in the first place). Updating and upskilling line managers and decision makers ahead of the new rights coming into force will be absolutely crucial for employers, to help to ensure that people management is effective and processes are compliant. 

One thing is for sure – this is a pivotal time with large-scale changes to employment rights on the horizon. For those who support the government’s reforms, arguably the expansion of employment rights is only as effective as the Tribunal and enforcement systems which underpin them. The government will therefore need to find the right balance between granting new rights for employees and maintaining a justice system to support this expansion.

Employers will want to keep a close eye on developments, manage workplace issues effectively and, where feasible, look at ways to deal with concerns at an early stage to avoid things escalating.