Penny Pinching

The government has come up with a scheme that saves it £74 million and cuts payments to the working class. 'Citizens Advice is urging a rethink of reforms that have caused claims against employers to plunge.  Employment tribunal fees have been branded "a barrier to justice", the high charges discouraging four out of five workers from pursuing claims against their employers, according to Citizens Advice.' (Independent, 21 December) Employment tribunal fees were introduced by the Government in July 2013, aiming to transfer the £74m cost of running tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal from the taxpayer to the claimants. Before the fees were introduced, Employment Tribunals (ETs) received an average of 48,000 new claims per quarter. However the most recent ET figures for July to September 2014 show that this had dropped to 13,612 new claims. RD