HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has provided further details of the employment tribunal digital reform programme.
Litigants in person will be able to submit their claim, review the status of their case, make applications and submit correspondence through CitizenUI portal. Updates on the progress of the case will be received via email notifications. Legal representatives will have access to a similar system via the MyHMCTS portal.
Employment tribunals will be able to digitally manage case files and process applications through the new system, removing the need for paper-based processes. In addition, the new case management system will exchange limited information with Acas, including early conciliation numbers and details of any claim resolutions. Testing is currently underway in Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol and Nottingham tribunals.
Meanwhile, it seems that the employment tribunal name and shame scheme has fallen flat. The government in December 2018 announced a scheme to name and shame employers who fail to pay employment tribunal awards within a prescribed time limit. Names of employers, together with the amount of the unpaid award were to be published on the gov.uk website.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed that the Department for Business and Trade has been notified 3,713 times, since the announcement, about employers who have failed to comply with awards issued by employment tribunals, but no names of defaulting employers have been published under the scheme.
The FOI also revealed that fewer than 50% of employers pay successful claimants all or any of the money they have won within 28 days of being ordered to do so.
