Employment Tribunal Judgements are now available to view online: a good or bad thing for employers?
Last week saw the launch of an online register of Employment Tribunal decisions which is accessible for all. You can access here.
Employment Tribunal proceedings are open to the public and you have been able to find out what cases are being heard by the Employment Tribunal but the actual decisions have not been available in a format accessible to all before.
This may seem like something that is only of interest to Employment Lawyers and HR practitioners but actually it could have implications for employer and employees in future.
There is an easy search function where you can type in the name of an individual or business and if they have been involved in an Employment Tribunal the judgement in the case will appear there for anyone to read.
This could have implications for your business with new recruits or potential customers, and in terms of your wider reputation. I have read Employment Tribunal judgements where the Judge or lay members of the Tribunal have made statements about their feeling on the credibility of the witnesses and parties to the proceedings. I have also read some damning comments about Employers behaviour and if this is available to anyone at the click of a button it can clearly do some damage to your business.
On the flipside, it enables employers to easily search for details about prospective employees to find out if they have been involved in the Employment Tribunal before. This could have consequences for employers who make recruitment decisions based on whether a person has made a claim against their former employer. Therefore, I do not recommend that you do this, and that you make decisions about someone’s suitability for the job based on objective criteria only which you can justify if questioned by the Tribunal.
Currently the database only includes recent cases and it is not known if old judgements will be added in the future.
Have a look for yourself here: www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this, please leave a comment below.