{"id":717,"date":"2015-01-30T09:54:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T09:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tayloremmet.co.uk\/blogsite\/?p=717"},"modified":"2015-01-30T09:54:55","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T09:54:55","slug":"tribunal-claims-will-an-employer-ever-be-punished-for-aggravating-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tayloremmet.co.uk\/blogs\/tribunal-claims-will-an-employer-ever-be-punished-for-aggravating-features\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribunal claims – will an employer ever be punished for “aggravating features”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may recall the introduction of “punitive\u00a0fines” for employers\u00a0who lose Employment Tribunal cases with “aggravating features<\/em>” in April last year.\u00a0 What will undoubtedly be welcome news for employers now, however, is the fact that absolutely no awards have been made since the legislation took effect.\u00a0 That’s a period of nine months apparently without one single fine.<\/p>\n

It was initially suggested during the consultation that\u00a0automatic<\/em> penalties would be imposed on any employer who lost a claim for Unfair Dismissal.\u00a0 Understandably, awards of this nature would be deemed too punitive and particularly restrictive for smaller employers who may not have the resources available to competently handle employment and HR matters, hence there was the\u00a0introduction of slightly less onerous financial penalty of between \u00a3100 and \u00a35,000 under the Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Act 2013 in relation to any\u00a0claims with “aggravating features<\/em>“.\u00a0 This is not additional compensation for successful Claimants, but theoretically goes directly to the Secretary of State, even in cases where the Claimant is awarded no compensation at all.<\/p>\n

The government seems, on the one hand, to have introduced beneficial measures for businesses to avoid the likelihood of being faced with a questionable Tribunal claim and the associated stress and cost burden.\u00a0 However, on the other hand, with the looming threat of an “aggravating features<\/em>” fine,\u00a0businesses may now feel pressurised to settle claims at an earlier stage, or settle claims which are without merit on the back of a threat of a fine.<\/p>\n

But what constitutes “aggravating features<\/em>“?\u00a0 To date, aggravating features have not been clearly defined.\u00a0 The government appear to have envisaged that “aggravating features<\/em>” would involve “unreasonable behaviour, negligence or malice<\/em>“.\u00a0 One would assume that this no longer applies, given that the definition of “unreasonable behaviour<\/em>” or “negligence<\/em>” in an employment context can be applied to almost every successful claim (whether or not the employer’s act was intentional).\u00a0 The Employment Tribunal is expected to take into account the employer’s size and resources, the duration of the breach of the employment right, and the conduct of both parties.\u00a0 However, the government has clarified that honest mistakes will not attract a financial penalty – however poor choices will, particularly if a company has a dedicated HR team.<\/p>\n

It seems that the guidance on fines for aggravating features has now shifted from the generic position outlined above\u00a0and will apply more precisely to “businesses that deliberately flout the law<\/em>“, which one assumes was the original purpose of the legislation and perhaps a reason that no awards have been made to date.\u00a0 However, one has to wonder whether the introduction of Employment Tribunal fees has impacted on the effectiveness of deterrence under the\u00a0new regime,\u00a0as arguably,\u00a0Claimants who have indeed been deliberately exploited by their employers are likely to be the least well paid members of society and thus unable to bring their claims at all.\u00a0 Clearly, if there is no claim, there can be no financial penalty.<\/p>\n

Given that\u00a0research from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills undertaken around the time of the consultation\u00a0found that around 50% of Employment Tribunal awards were not paid in full, it will be interesting to see how, if any awards are in fact made, the aggravating features awards will be enforced.\u00a0 It seems unlikely that the\u00a0a 50% discount on fines paid within 21 days will provide sufficient incentive to “businesses who deliberately flout the law<\/em>” to make any form\u00a0of\u00a0payment, particularly in light of the fact that 54% of unpaid Tribunal awards could not be enforced because the Company no\u00a0longer existed, was insolvent,\u00a0or could no longer be located.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may recall the introduction of “punitive\u00a0fines” for employers\u00a0who lose Employment Tribunal cases with “aggravating features” in April last year.\u00a0 What will undoubtedly be welcome news for employers now, however, is the fact that absolutely no awards have been made since the legislation took effect.\u00a0 That’s a period of nine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[52,31,7,23,24,26,32],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-tribunal","tag-compensation","tag-employment-law","tag-employment-tribunals","tag-tribunal-claims","tag-tribunal-statistics","tag-unfair-dismissal"],"yoast_head":"\nTribunal claims - will an employer ever be punished for "aggravating features"? | Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tayloremmet.co.uk\/blogs\/tribunal-claims-will-an-employer-ever-be-punished-for-aggravating-features\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tribunal claims - will an employer ever be punished for "aggravating features"? 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