The back of the employment court in the United Kingdom has reached record levels, lawyers warning that almost 50,000 business waiting should increase as businesses absorb the impact of legislation on the rights of new workers.
Some 49,800 cases were waiting to be heard by a job court at the end of the last quarter of last year, against 39,000 during the same period of 2023, according to HM Courts & Tribunals Service data.
The jump occurs as a serious shortage of qualified judges from the job court left around 450,000 people, both to unique and multiple allegations of illegal treatment, waiting for their affairs to be resolved.
Philip Cameron, partner of the law firm Littler, who obtained the figures, said that the long order book was “simply not just for one or the other of the parties” and that “leaving companies in the legal limbo makes it more difficult for them to function”, in particular small and medium -sized enterprises with relatively less resources.
“The government must provide appropriate additional funding to help the courts to face the current backwards and to manage the sharp increase in the disputes expected after the bill on employment rights becomes the law,” he added.
Under the flagship legislation of government workers' rights, which is now going through the Parliament and likely to take effect from 2026, employees will be entitled to “first day” protections against unfair dismissal.
They will also have up to six months to call on a job court after the incident in question, against three months at present, for most complaints.
The ministers said that the doubling of the period during which a complaint may be brought is “likely to simplify the job court system, to reduce complexity and rigidity for employees who sail there”, as well as “provide more realistic time for the preparation of solid cases and fundraising for legal costs”.
But Cameron warned that the unfair dismissal one day one day “even with the authorized probation periods, will lead to a sharp increase in complaints”.
“In addition to this is the possibility of disputes arising from companies that make redundancies while they are trying to deal with the recent increase in minimum wages and national employers' insurance,” he added.
HMCTS data showed that 11,500 complaints had been filed with employment courts in the last three months of last year, up 30% compared to the same period in 2023 and exceeding 10,100 cases resolved in the last quarter of last year.
The disturbance of the hearings caused by the COVVI-19 pandemic exacerbated the backlog, as well as the abolition of court costs in 2017. The decision meant that people, who previously had to pay between £ 390 and £ 1,600 to house complaints, could provide complaints for free, increasing the number of cases.
The Ministry of Justice said that the government had inherited “an arrow employment tribunal” and “financed the employment of the court to sit on maximum capacity”.
“We also continue to invest in the recruitment of approximately 1,000 judges and members of the court of all courts and courts,” he added.
