Financial penalties against losing employers
The Government introduced an Employment Tribunal power to award financial penalties of between £100 and £5,000 on employers found to have breached a worker’s employment rights where the breach has one or more “aggravating features”.
Since the introduction in April 2014, how many penalties have been ordered by ETs?
On 13 October 2015, the Government responded saying, “8 financial penalties have been imposed on employers for aggravated breach of employment law”. Currently, 2 penalties have been paid and 6 remain unpaid.
Our David Sorensen, partner, responds: “8 penalties in 18 months – wow, one penalty every 2 or so months. It’s hardly likely that employers will be quaking in their boots not least given the fact that only 25% of the penalties have in fact been paid up! In my opinion, it was more meaningless window-dressing by a Government intent on slashing the real employment rights of workers and making it very hard for people to enforce their rights with the very high costs of Employment Tribunal fees”.
