Improving the employment tribunal system in Northern Ireland

What to do if you have a dispute at work

Problems at work over employment rights and responsibilities thankfully don't affect everyone; but they can affect anyone, so you need to know what to do if you find yourself facing a dispute. If you have a problem with something that's happened at work, there are several ways of dealing with the situation. You should familiarise yourself with these and consider all your options before you think about taking your case to a tribunal. In fact, since 3rd April 2005, you must usually follow three basic steps before you can bring a tribunal claim.

What is the tribunal system?

Tribunals offer a legal solution to employment disputes. They are like courts, though they are not as formal as the civil courts. So when might you use a tribunal?

There will always be occasions when, no matter how hard you try, you can't solve a problem at work. It is here that the tribunal system comes into its own. Tribunals can hear a case and make a legal decision based on the evidence presented to them.

The decision is arrived at by the legally qualified chairperson and experienced lay members of the tribunal panel hearing your case. You can only appeal against the decision in limited circumstances.

In Northern Ireland, there are two types of employment tribunal. Industrial tribunals deal with most employment disputes, including complaints relating to unfair dismissal, wages, sex discrimination, breach of contract, and so on. The Fair Employment Tribunal deals with religious or political discrimination in employment.

How has the system changed?

Public consultation on 'Phase 2' of a process of tribunal reforms began on 28th July and ran to 20th October 2004. The reforms took advantage of recent legislative changes (made by the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 to improve the Rules of Procedure used in the day-to-day running of the tribunals. Among other issues, the consultation asked for the public's views on:

  • making the new rules easier to understand
  • further improving the handling of cases
  • providing new standard forms for use in every case
  • introducing new provisions on costs
  • fixing the amount of time for Labour Relations Agency conciliation in some cases
  • new rules to speed up equal pay cases

The Department would like to thank all those who took time to respond to the consultation. Feedback will be analysed and a response setting out what the Government intends to do will be prepared. You may wish to bookmark this page to keep track of further developments.

Changes to the tribunal system: a timeline

Items in bold within the list below relate to primary legislation, providing the overall framework in which tribunals operate. Items in italics relate to the tribunal Regulations and Rules of Procedure which set out how the day-to-day running of the tribunals should be handled.

  • Autumn 2001: Consultation on resolving disputes, including proposals for improving the efficiency of employment-related tribunals.
  • Spring 2003: Consultation on new primary legislation to implement some of the major 2001 proposals.
  • Autumn 2003: 'Phase 1' tribunal rules consultation - separate, more specific consultation on improved Regulations and Rules of Procedure setting out how tribunal cases are dealt with. These Rules and Regulations had not been updated for many years.
  • November 2003: Approval of the new primary legislation - the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 - by Parliament. The Order is explained in more detail here. It gave the Department power to improve the Regulations and Rules which specify how tribunal cases are dealt with.
  • April 2004: Coming into operation of the Phase 1 proposals in the form of new Regulations and Rules of Procedure for industrial tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal.
  • July-October 2004: Public consultation on 'Phase 2' of the process of tribunal reforms. The reforms took advantage of changes made by the Employment  (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 to further improve the Rules of Procedure used in the day-to-day running of the tribunals.
  • April 2005: Coming into operation of the Phase 2 industrial tribunal and Fair Employment Tribunal Regulations and Rules of Procedure.