The TUC submission says while more needs to be done to speed up tribunal claims, the Government is seeking to do this by restricting access to justice and pricing low-paid vulnerable workers out of the system.
The TUC firmly opposes plans to introduce fees for those wishing to take their employers to employment tribunals and says that this will have a disproportionate impact on low-paid workers.
Nearly 70% of tribunal claimants have average or below-average earnings and more than a third - 35% - earn less than £15,000, according to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills' Survey of Employment Tribunal Applicants 2008.
The TUC has cited Government statistics showing that young people, ethnic minorities and female part-time workers will be most affected by plans to remove unfair dismissal rights from staff with less than two years' service:
- 59.2% of employees aged 24 and under have less than two years' service
- 30.1% of ethnic minority employees have less than two years' service, compared with 24.3% of white employees
- 32.4% of part-time employees have less than two years' service, compared with 22% of full-time employees and
- 500,000 female part-time workers will lose out directly as a result of the 12-month extension to the qualifying period.
The submission says that cases can be speeded up by giving more resources to the tribunal system, improving the enforcement of multiple pay claims and extending Acas' pre-claim conciliation service. The TUC is concerned, however, that the Government's plans could undermine the impartiality and effectiveness of this service.
The TUC supports the imposition of automatic penalties for employers which breach an individual's employment rights, but believes that sanctions should be paid directly to the claimant, rather than to the Treasury.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "While everyone wants to see a quicker and more efficient tribunal system, taking away people's rights and pricing vulnerable workers out of the system is the worst possible way to achieve this.
"The proposals to restrict protection against unfair dismissal will not only hit young people and female part-time employees the hardest, but will also open the door to more discrimination claims, creating confusion for staff and employers alike.
"There is no credible evidence to show that restricting access to justice actually helps our economy and it is disappointing that ministers seem so keen to boost bad employment practices.
"If the Government is serious about improving the tribunal system, it should concentrate much more on encouraging disputes to be resolved before they get to court."
