{"id":3550,"date":"2015-04-02T14:10:01","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T13:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3550"},"modified":"2015-04-07T14:46:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T13:46:32","slug":"workplace-justice-access-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3550","title":{"rendered":"Workplace justice access hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite has warmly welcomed an election pledge from Labour to scrap controversial employment tribunal fees brought in by the Tory-led government almost two years ago.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe upfront fees \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which have been heavily criticised by some bosses as well as trade unions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are believed to have denied millions their rightful access to justice.<\/p>\n

 
\nA recent report from the TUC \u00e2\u20ac\u201c called What price justice? \u00e2\u20ac\u201c found there had been a staggering 79 per cent fall in the overall claims taken to tribunals, with low-paid workers and women worst hit.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe fees are set at \u00c2\u0141250 to issue a claim and \u00c2\u0141950 for a tribunal hearing, with appeals costing up to \u00c2\u01411,600. Conservative ministers stuck to their guns on the prohibitive fees despite strong and sustained protests from Unite and others.<\/p>\n

 
\nLabour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in launching A better plan for Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workplaces \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has said it will \u00e2\u20ac\u015bensure proper access to justice\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6..by abolishing the government’s employment tribunal fee system.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite general secretary, Len McCluskey, said this showed \u00e2\u20ac\u015bworking people (would) get some hope back under Ed Miliband.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 He also hit out at David Cameron over the fall in the numbers of tribunal claims on his watch.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDecent people have been shut out of justice and cheated out of wages,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwhile rogue bosses have been given a free hand to discriminate thanks to his government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s introduction of tribunal fees.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen you start to charge people on the minimum wage more than a month’s wages to get back the pay stolen from them, then as a government you are just as bad as the rogues. Bad bosses celebrated the day this law was passed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Howard Beckett \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Unite director for legal services \u00e2\u20ac\u201c thinks Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promise on fees is \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba positive move and a good move in the right direction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou know employment tribunal fees have been part and parcel of a very well thought out attack on the rights of workers and the rights of trade unions,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stark choice <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beckett believes voters are now faced are now faced with \u00e2\u20ac\u015ban absolutely stark choice\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 on May 7.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you want protection from bad practices then you chose Labour, if you want a charter for bad employers then you chose Conservative that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the stark choice that workers have.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also acknowledges that the number of women pursuing claims has fallen dramatically, with those bringing pregnancy discrimination claims down by more than a quarter in the first year fees were introduced.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bForty years after the anti-discrimination legislation was passed, women are still losing jobs and being harassed at work when they are pregnant or have just had a baby,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Siobhan Endean, national officer for equalities at Unite.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis situation is exacerbated by the dramatic drop in tribunal cases for maternity discrimination since the introduction of tribunal fees.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWomen are finding it increasingly difficult to challenge such discrimination with cuts to legal advice services,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said, adding, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe introduction of employment tribunal fees are having a devastating impact on access to justice.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe worrying impact of tribunal fees is not perhaps an issue which alone will define the general election outcome. Yet many up and down the country will be in full agreement that, as Labour puts it, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Britain only succeeds when working people succeed.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has warmly welcomed an election pledge from Labour to scrap controversial employment tribunal fees brought in by the Tory-led government almost two years ago.   The upfront fees \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which have been heavily criticised by some bosses as well as trade unions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are believed to have denied millions their rightful access to justice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[233,224],"wps_subtitle":"Labour gives hope for those \u00e2\u20ac\u0098shut out of justice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by tribunal fees ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3551,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/3551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}