The average waiting time between the tribunal receiving a claim and hearing it has reached eight months (237 days), up 14% from 207 days last year. Some new claims, for example, at Croydon Employment Tribunal, may not be heard until 2021.
Raoul Parekh, partner at employment law firm GQ|Littler, said the delays were ‘just not sustainable… Many businesses facing an employment claim feel like they are operating under a cloud until that claim is dealt with.
‘On this kind of timeline, it is not uncommon for key witnesses to leave, move to other roles or countries, and memories can also fade. A severe lack of resources means delays are endemic across the whole tribunals system—even when calling the employment tribunals enquiries helpline, you can be waiting for hours.’
One way to improve waiting times, he said, might be to introduce an extra step in the tribunals process which gives both parties a chance to settle before a case is heard.
Waiting times have now risen for four years in a row, as HM Courts & Tribunals Service struggled to employ enough salaried judges and key administrative support staff. Moreover, the abolition of tribunal fees in July 2017 contributed to a 27% spike in claims received in 2018–19.
To help address the growing waiting time and backlog of cases, the Judicial Appointments Commission launched a recruitment drive earlier this year to hire an extra 54 salaried employment tribunals judges. As of July 2019, some 27 have been appointed.
