The ins and outs of
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Industrial Tribunals
What is an Industrial Tribunal? Technically speaking it is not a court but an administrative tribunal. The initial idea was that the tribunal should be an informal place to sort out problems. The criticism is that they have been taken over by lawyers and are now legalistic and long winded. There is some truth in that, but it is also the case that employers, and many employees, do not want "rough justice"—they want to win their point because it matters to them.
Who sits on the Tribunal?
Typically a case is heard by a panel of three. The one in the chair is the lawyer who is either a solicitor or a barrister. He or she does not necessarily have to have any experience in either employment law or any front line management. This often shows.
There are two lay members, one from the management side and the other from the union side of industry. The chairman can be full or part time. Taxpayers pay for this. Unlike the civil court system, it has no revenue generated from case filing fees and the like to offset against the expense. What are the votes?
Each tribunal member has one vote. The tribunal usually retires to make a decision. The
chairman does not have any casting or extra vote, so that you can frequently get cases decided 2:1 as a majority decision. Where this happens, you will usually be told what was the view of the dissenting member.
Cases can be heard by a chairman alone if both parties consent. The huge range of cases includes unfair dismissals, disability, sex and race discrimination, equal pay, claims for unlawful Wages Act deductions, declarations as to the terms of employment contracts, union member victimisation, claims for damages for breach of contract of employment and industrial training levy board claims.
Appeals These are made to the Employment Appeal Tribunal. This also has a panel of two and a chair who is a High Court judge.
The lay members might include, for example, the general-secretary of a trade union. Appeals are on points of law only, not on facts.