Employment tribunal

Employment tribunals are tribunal public bodies in both England and Wales and Scotland that have statutory jurisdiction to hear disputes between employers and employees.

The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, redundancy payments and employment discrimination.

The tribunals are part of the UK tribunals system, administered by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice.

Employment tribunals were created as industrial tribunals by the Industrial Training Act 1964. Industrial tribunals were judicial bodies consisting of a lawyer, who was the chairman, an individual nominated by an employer association, and another by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) or by a TUC-affiliated union. These independent panels heard and made legally binding rulings in relation to employment law disputes.

Under the Employment Rights (Dispute Resolution) Act 1998, their name was changed to employment tribunals from 1 August 1998. Employment tribunals continue to perform the same function as the industrial tribunals.

There are separate employment tribunals for Scotland and for England and Wales, because there are significant differences between Scots civil law and English civil law.

A claim may not be presented in Scotland for proceedings in England and Wales, and vice versa, but it is possible to transfer proceedings between the two jurisdictions in certain circumstances.

Employment tribunals may hear claims brought within three months for issues related to "statutory" breaches only. The statutory breaches are listed below: