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The employee is well aware that the application fee is non-refundable. The hearing fee is non-refundable. In the unlikely event that an individual applicant should succeed at tribunal and the even more unlikely event that he should succeed on appeal, there is no guarantee that the fee is refunded. It remains in the discretion of the tribunal. Why on earth should an employer wish to negotiate at any stage. The so-called 25% uplift in damages held over the heads of employers who behave outrageously is absolutely no deterrent. To date, only three such orders have been and only one has paid.

The remedy of unfair dismissal, like the remedy of re-engagement or reinstatement has been rendered illusory. `It is, to all intents an purposes a paper remedy for those within the lower socio-economic groups and for many of those above it.

As for the Law Society's idea of a four-tiered structure? Sorry, but it does mo more than to shuffle the cards in the pack.

We need a culture of compliance. We need a model along the lines of the Irish Republic's National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) and the wide ranging powers it has of inspection, disclosure and prosecution. Why should we continue to have separate statutory bodies that monitor and enforce different aspects of employer compliance. One body monitors 'gangmasters 'through a licencing system. Another enforces anti-illegal working. Yet another enforces equality and human rights. A charity monitors whistleblowing, yet another enforces health and safety, while yet another deals with mediation and all issue 'guidance'. We do not need this expensive, piecemeal and 'scattergun' approach to compliance. We need a new approach. Lawyers are concerned with winning cases for their clients. It is only one prong of a better two-pronged approach to compliance and enforcement.

Employers are well-represented by an entire government department who seem to forget that while no-one has a right to be employed, there is no absolute right to run a business. If you want the benefit of labour, then you accept the burden of acting fairly and within the law and an monitoring and enforcement system should exist to bring that about.