There has been a concerted legislative attack on employee rights in recent years. One element of that has been the introduction of employment tribunal fees. It has been reported that the effect of the fees has been to reduce the number of claims by 79%.

There has been no proper analysis as yet of which types of claim have been affected. Many commentators have opined that the reduction has largely been caused by claimants ‘forum shopping’ and taking their smaller financial breach of contract claims to the county court, which has lower fees.

In our experience, we are busier than ever. That is not surprising, given that discrimination is on the rise at work, with 30% of Britons admitting to being ‘very’ or a ‘little’ racist.

Fortunately, discrimination rights are underpinned and maintained by the EU. The government looked at challenging this, but unless we leave the EU, they are stuck. Hence, the right to claim unfair dismissal was bludgeoned instead.

Discrimination claimants are not put off by the fees and,in our experience, are recovering greater amounts by way of settlement and award. In short, none of our prospective clients has been deterred by the fees. Their main worry is always lawyers’ fees – and provided firms offer affordable representation from day one to trial, and good outcomes, they will remain busy.

Moreover, claimants are becoming better at playing the system, taking out legal expenses insurance which covers the casework and the fees. So claimants will access justice and some well-known people our clients are pursuing will have to remain on their guard.

The simple way to end employee claims and related costs is for employers to act fairly and without discrimination. That would end all but 0.25% of ET claims. The real issue is that 33% experience discrimination or harassment, but only 0.01% complain about it. Many are deterred by fear of victimisation.

Government tinkering seldom solves the real problems but merely appeases interest groups.

Lawrence Davies, director, Equal Justice Solicitors, London WC1

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