Imagine a final payslip is £500 short. You can show the hours you worked. You know what the contract says. Then you discover that bringing the claim could cost a substantial part of what you are owed. Would you still go ahead? The answer to that question, multiplied across thousands of working households, became evidence before the UK Supreme Court.
The claims that never reached a hearing
In 2013 the government introduced fees to bring and pursue employment tribunal claims in Great Britain. For some types of claim, issue and hearing fees together reached £1,200. Claims fell sharply. In 2017, in a challenge by UNISON, the Supreme Court quashed the fees order. The scale of the fall mattered, as did the everyday economics of a claim. Someone who could technically raise a fee might still have to give up reasonable living expenses to do so.
Some claims had little financial value. Others sought something money could not easily measure, such as recognition that an employer had broken the law. If bringing a modest claim makes no financial sense, the person who underpaid the wages may have very little reason to put things right. The Court connected the ability of one worker to obtain a hearing with the value of employment law for everyone else.
What would it cost to bring a claim now?
GOV.UK says there is no fee to make an employment tribunal claim in England, Wales or Scotland. There can still be expenses, time away from work, the cost of representation if you choose it, and in certain circumstances a costs order. Northern Ireland has a separate tribunal system. A tribunal filing fee, a private adviser’s fee and a possible costs order are three different things.
If your wages appear wrong, start with a calculation someone else can reproduce. For each pay period, write down the hours, the agreed rate, what you received and the difference. A payslip, rota and bank entry can each answer a different part of the puzzle. Check the time limit straight away. An internal complaint does not, by itself, stop the clock.
Read R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51.
Check the official tribunal claim guide or book an individual consultation to discuss your calculation and options.
