Improve Efficiency Through Employment Tribunal League Tables

Employment tribunal league tables should be introduced in order to make the disputes process more credible.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said that the current system is ineffective for both employers and workers because it is a lengthy process which is too legalistic and antagonistic.

One way to improve the process is to implement measures that can speed up the system and make it fairer as well as decreasing costs for both parties involved in disputes.

The CBI has said that the best place to start is to make it harder for weak claims to develop into full blown employment tribunals and employees should be educated about the likely outcomes of disputes.

It is important that only reasonable claims are brought to employment tribunals as irrational disputes can seriously deteriorate relations between employees and bosses, which will damage morale and productivity.

Research by the CBI revealed there has been a 173 per cent increase in claims since 2005 and this has been bad news for business performance as too much time has been spent on attempting to resolve such disputes.

CBI Chief Policy Director Katja Hall said that businesses can improve performance by solving workplace disputes before they reach the stage of an employment tribunal as this will reduce the amount of time managers will spend away from work.

She said: "We are saddled with a tribunal system that is expensive, stressful and time-consuming for all parties. Surely it's in everyone's interests for cases with merit to be heard quickly and settled, while weak claims are swiftly identified and weeded out."

Early settlements should be encouraged and if a party has refused a reasonable offer than a tribunal should be informed that a decision has been made to lengthen the process.

Compromise agreements should be made easier to use as any where deal an employment relationship is terminated by mutual consent should be encouraged as it is intrinsically fair.

The Tribunals Service needs to be made more transparent and this can be done by revealing how individual judges perform on a national level so that there is greater consistency across the country.

Companies that are concerned about how employment tribunals can affect their productivity levels should employ the services of performance improvement consulting experts.

Performance improvement consultants can improve organisational processes and enhance employee morale so that the likelihood of employment tribunals are dramatically decreased.


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