The ‘Level 6’ service provides an organisation with the relevant employment law expertise to handle an employment tribunal case.
The most effective solution is, of course, to avoid such situations in the first place, and People Programmes offer a number of services that can help an organisation avoid such an outcome (please see the Level 1– Foundation and Level 2 – HR On Call services). The requirement for organisations and employees to follow ACAS compliant grievance or disciplinary processes gives both sides an opportunity to resolve any dispute ahead of a tribunal.
It is only under very limited circumstances that an employer can remove the right of an employee to take a case to a tribunal, so even when an employer has done everything ‘by the book’ they may still end up facing a claim.
Thankfully for most employers a tribunal case is still a rare occurrence. This does mean however that they are unlikely to have the expertise in-house in dealing with one. Such employers can utilise People Programmes’ expertise to plan and prepare for either a negotiated settlement, of for a defence of the tribunal claim.
What are the advantages to my organisation?
- Up to Date Expertise: All People Programmes professionals are required to keep up to date with both employment legislation and with legal case law. It is often the latter that will have a direct impact on your particular case.
- Access to Specialist Legal Teams: People Programmes works with a number of specialised employment law practitioners where they can get accurate advice on complex legal issues, as well as be called upon to represent an employer if they wish to have a formal legal team represent them on the day.
- Ro0t Cause Analysis: Quite often a tribunal case is a symptom of something wrong within an organisation, such as poor management training, or inappropriate or out of date policies or procedures. People Programmes can provide recommendations following the case to provide solutions to tackle any such root causes and avoid a recurrence.
What Is Included?
The People Programmes Tribunal Case Handling programme typically consists of a number of activities:
- A briefing meeting to discuss the problem case and review all documentation pertaining to the case (including the tribunal application if things have progressed to that stage).
- Preparation of the employer’s response to the tribunal (if that has not yet been submitted).
- Evaluation of whether a settlement may be reached between the employer and the individual (via ACAS) and the signing of a ‘COT3’ agreement that will bring the process to a conclusion.
- Provision of a ‘Risk Statement’ that details the likely outcome of a full tribunal hearing.
- Representation at Tribunal if required
What Solutions Are Available?
The following solutions have been utilised with other clients, and provide an indication of the type of support People Programmes are able to offer:
- Review of applicable case law to identify winning strategies
- Training of individuals who will need to attend the tribunal, on the workings of the tribunal and how to conduct themselves
- Bundle preparation – collating all of the documentation that the employer will wish to rely on at the tribunal (and agreeing the bundle with the claimant)
- Root cause analysis to identify whether the issue could have been avoided
- Design of new processes and procedures as appropriate.
What Does It Cost?
The fees for providing the People Programmes Tribunal Case Handling Programme will vary according to the exact nature of the service being provided, the likely length of the engagement and whether specialist employment lawyers will need to be involved.
Please contact us to get an estimate of the cost for your organisation:
