According to the report, Conflict Management: A Shift in Direction?, employers are divided over whether or not the fees, which were introduced to deter weak or vexatious claims, have been a positive move. While 38% of the 1,000 employers surveyed said they would like fees to remain as they are, 36% said the fees should be either significantly reduced or abolished altogether.
CIPD employee relations adviser Mike Emmott called the drop in claims “unprecedented”. “Employers have long complained about the damaging effect that weak or unsubstantiated claims have on their business, but given the staggering drop in claims since, it must be the case that some perfectly valid claims have been discouraged as a result of the new fees,” he said.
“Fees may not make it impossible for claimants to pursue their case but they’ve certainly made it more difficult, which begs the question: are we putting too high a price on justice?”
He added that he believes the fees (which require employees to pay up to £1,200 to bring a claim) would be “unlikely” to “survive” the general election in their current form, as all three major parties have spoken of their plans to review them.
“Assuming that fees survive in some shape or form, it will be important to get the balance right between having a fee structure that is simple to understand and one that is proportionate to the type of claim being made,” Emmott said.
Business secretary Vince Cable called for the fees system to be reviewed “as a matter of urgency”.
Cable said: “It’s vital that the employment tribunal system strikes the right balance between employee and employer protection. The fact that employers are so split over whether the introduction of tribunal fees has been a good or a bad thing further reinforces the need for a review, despite opposition in some quarters.”
Conflict management
The CIPD research found the fastest growing methods employers are using to deal with conflict are training line managers to handle difficult conversations or manage conflict (47%) and facilitated discussions or trouble shooting by HR managers (38%).
Almost a quarter (24%) of employers have conducted internal mediation using a trained member of staff, only 9% have relied on external mediation.
Emmott said: “It’s encouraging to see how many employers are making use of alternative methods of resolving issues and it’s welcome news that more managers are getting mediation training. This will improve the quality of conversations between them and their staff and help to defuse conflict before it can escalate; prevention is better than cure.”
