Employment Tribunal: Process, Time Limits, No Fees

The Employment Tribunal decides most UK workplace disputes, including unfair dismissal, discrimination and unpaid wages claims. There are no fees to bring a claim, following the Supreme Court's 2017 ruling in R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor, but strict time limits apply from day one.

What the Employment Tribunal Deals With

The Employment Tribunal is the specialist court that hears most employment disputes in England, Wales and Scotland. It decides claims such as unfair dismissal, discrimination and harassment under the Equality Act 2010, unpaid wages and unlawful deductions, statutory redundancy pay disputes, and whistleblowing detriment claims under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. It also hears breach-of-contract claims up to a limited value once employment has ended, and disputes over holiday pay, notice pay and written statements of employment particulars. Most claims are brought by an employee or worker against a current or former employer, though some claims, including certain discrimination claims, can be brought by job applicants too. For a specific claim type, see unfair dismissal and workplace discrimination.

No Tribunal Fees

Bringing an Employment Tribunal claim costs nothing. Fees were introduced in 2013, but the Supreme Court ruled them unlawful in R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51, finding they prevented people from accessing justice and had a discriminatory effect. The government abolished the fee regime and repaid claimants who had already paid, and no fee has applied since. This means a claimant does not pay to submit an ET1 claim form or to have a case heard. A tribunal can occasionally order a losing party to pay the other side's costs, but only in limited circumstances, such as where a claim or response was misconceived or a party behaved unreasonably during proceedings. Cost orders remain rare; most claims proceed without either side paying the other's legal costs, regardless of who wins.

ACAS Early Conciliation: The Mandatory First Step

Before starting most Employment Tribunal claims, a prospective claimant must first notify ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) and go through Early Conciliation. This step is mandatory, not optional; a tribunal will normally reject a claim submitted without an Early Conciliation certificate number, aside from a small number of exempted claim types. ACAS contacts the employer to see whether the dispute can be resolved without a hearing, and either side can agree a settlement at this stage. Early Conciliation can run for up to 12 weeks, doubled from 6 weeks for notifications made on or after 1 December 2025, though it can end sooner if either side declines to take part. Crucially, starting Early Conciliation pauses the tribunal time limit for the duration of the process, so the clock stops while ACAS is involved and resumes once conciliation ends. Details at ACAS: Early conciliation.

Time Limits: Three Months Less One Day, Extending to 6 Months from October 2026

The standard deadline for starting an Employment Tribunal claim is currently 3 months less one day from the act complained of; for a dismissal, that means 3 months less a day from the effective date of termination. From 1 October 2026, under the Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026, this standard deadline extends to 6 months for claims based on an act on or after that date; a claim based on an earlier act still uses the 3-months-less-a-day limit. The unusual "less one day" wording reflects how the time limit is counted, and it means a claimant who waits until exactly 3 months has already missed the deadline. A few claim types, such as certain redundancy pay claims, already use different limits. Because Early Conciliation pauses the clock, the practical deadline depends on when ACAS is notified and how long conciliation runs, so contacting ACAS well before the applicable deadline is the safest approach. Tribunals have limited discretion to accept a late claim, generally only where it was not reasonably practicable to claim in time. For the full mechanics, including the transitional rules, see employment tribunal time limits.

The Employment Tribunal Process

An Employment Tribunal claim moves through a defined sequence of stages, from the initial ACAS contact to a possible appeal.

Most hearings today are before an employment judge sitting alone. Discrimination claims and certain other claim types may instead be heard by a judge sitting with two lay members, one drawn from an employer background and one from an employee or trade union background.

Settling a Claim Without a Hearing

Many tribunal claims never reach a final hearing. A dispute can settle at any stage, most commonly through an ACAS-brokered COT3 agreement reached during or after Early Conciliation, or through a formal settlement agreement negotiated directly between employer and employee. Both routes are legally binding and typically involve a payment to the employee in exchange for withdrawing or not pursuing tribunal claims. Settling avoids the cost, delay and uncertainty of a hearing for both sides, which is why most disputes that reach Early Conciliation or an ET1 filing settle rather than proceed to judgment.

Possible Outcomes: Reinstatement, Re-engagement and Compensation

If a claim succeeds, the remedy depends on the type of claim. In an unfair dismissal case the tribunal can order reinstatement (the employee returns to their old job) or re-engagement (a comparable job with the same employer), though both are rare in practice; compensation, made up of a basic award and a compensatory award, is the usual outcome. Discrimination claims can result in compensation for financial loss and injury to feelings, with no statutory cap. Unpaid wages and redundancy pay claims typically result in an order to pay the sum owed. For how the basic and compensatory awards are worked out, including the compensatory award cap due to be removed from 1 January 2027, see unfair dismissal.

Appeals: The Employment Appeal Tribunal

A party unhappy with an Employment Tribunal's decision can appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), but only on a point of law, such as the tribunal misapplying the law or reaching a decision no reasonable tribunal could have reached on the evidence. The EAT does not rehear the facts or substitute its own view of who should have won; disagreeing with a tribunal's factual findings is not, on its own, a ground of appeal. Strict time limits apply to lodging an appeal. Further appeal from the EAT is possible, with permission, to the Court of Appeal (or the Court of Session in Scotland) and ultimately the Supreme Court.

Northern Ireland: The Industrial Tribunal

Northern Ireland does not use the Employment Tribunal. Employment claims there are heard by the Industrial Tribunal, and religious or political discrimination claims go to the Fair Employment Tribunal, under Northern Ireland's own, near-identical employment statutes. There is no ACAS Early Conciliation requirement in Northern Ireland; instead, the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) provides the equivalent pre-claim conciliation service. The absence of fees and the general shape of the time limits mirror the Great Britain position described above, but NI legislates separately, so anyone bringing a claim in Northern Ireland should confirm the current process and deadlines directly with the LRA rather than assume the GB rules apply exactly.

For the wider employment rights picture, see the UK employment law hub and the United Kingdom country hub. Related guides include employment tribunal time limits, unfair dismissal and settlement agreements.

This article is general information about the Employment Tribunal process in Great Britain, not legal advice. Tribunal procedure and time limits can turn on the specific facts of a case, and only ACAS, the tribunal itself, or a qualified solicitor can advise on an individual claim; consult ACAS or a solicitor before acting on your specific situation.