Employment tribunals came into existence in 1964 to provide a simple means for employees to obtain redress from their employers for poor treatment at work. There was to be no fee for instituting a claim as that would provide an artificial barrier to obtaining redress. Over the years, employment tribunals have gradually changed the face of employment backed by legislation to provide proper rights for employees.

In the early days of my career, I did employment work. I appeared once in the Employment Appeal Tribunal then housed in a plush residence, once the home of Nancy Astor in St James Square, Piccadilly. I succeeded in persuading the learned judge that the employer, who had used his ‘innate skill and judgment’ to choose who would be made redundant and who would stay, had acted unlawfully. We suspected that our client had been chosen for the chop because he had been involved in Trade Union work. The Judge agreed that an employer had to use objective criteria in deciding who would go and who would stay to avoid any accusation of personal bias against a particular employee.

There had been talk for some while of it being right that some charge might be appropriate to issue a claim in the Employment Tribunal. However when the government did institute fees in July 2013, the level was punitive. How could an employee who had just lost his or her job be expected to raise fees of more than £1000 to pursue their case? No wonder that the number of cases being dealt in the Employment Tribunal with plummeted immediately by over 70%.

The Supreme Court, in a case brought by Unison, has now unanimously agreed that the fees are unconstitutional and a bar to access to justice. A House of Commons Justice select committee had already recommended that the fees should be reviewed but this had been rebuffed by the Government. Now the MOJ is being forced to refund £32 million in court fees paid over the past three years. Unfortunately this does not help the thousands of people who were unable to access justice because of the cost of the fees. How many individuals who have been dismissed or faced discrimination have been thwarted from making a claim in the interim? My activist chosen for redundancy would have stood no chance in the interim.

Sadly it is not just Tribunal Fees that are proving a barrier to access to justice. Anyone who has contemplated a court action recently will know that the price of instituting a claim can be as much as £10,000 and that’s just for starters. If you add on the cost of pursuing your claim to trial, that cost can double or treble making the court the province of the wealthy. In some cases, this cost can be covered by litigation insurance but that does not eradicate the mischief.

Our employment law team act both for employees and employers but we welcome the Supreme Court Judgement. It cannot be right that justice is only available to those with means to pursue a claim. We can only hope that the Government will look carefully at the whole question of funding of court and tribunal work. Employees and others suffering a wrong need to be able to do something about it. This decision is a start, but more needs to be done to reduce the burden of those seeking redress thought the Courts.