Employment tribunal claims are the formal route for workers in Great Britain to challenge unfair dismissal, discrimination, unpaid wages, and other breaches of employment rights. There is no fee to bring one, but you must first notify ACAS and go through early conciliation, and you must file within three months less one day of the act you are complaining about. Miss the deadline or skip the ACAS step and the tribunal will refuse to hear you, whatever the merits.
Who Can Bring a Claim
Eligibility depends on what you are claiming. For ordinary unfair dismissal, section 108 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires at least two years of continuous employment with the same employer.1Legislation.gov.uk. Employment Rights Act 1996 – Section 108 That qualifying period falls away if the dismissal was for an automatically unfair reason such as whistleblowing, asserting a statutory right, pregnancy, or trade union activity. In those cases, even an employee dismissed on day one can bring a claim.2GOV.UK. Dismissing Staff – Eligibility to Claim Unfair Dismissal
Discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010 have no minimum service requirement. If you were treated unfairly because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, you can claim regardless of how long you have worked there.3Legislation.gov.uk. Equality Act 2010 – Section 4 The same open door applies to claims for unauthorized deductions from wages under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.4Legislation.gov.uk. Employment Rights Act 1996 – Section 13
There is no tribunal fee. A previous fee system was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court in 2017 and has not been reintroduced.
The Deadline That Governs Everything
For almost every employment tribunal claim, you have three months minus one day from the date of the act complained of.5Acas. Employment Tribunal Time Limits For dismissal, the clock starts on your last day of employment. For discrimination, it runs from the discriminatory act, though a continuing course of conduct can push the start date forward. Late claims are only accepted in exceptional circumstances, and tribunals set that bar high.
Notifying ACAS within the time limit pauses and extends it. Once ACAS issues your early conciliation certificate, you have at least one month from that date to file with the tribunal.6Acas. How the Process Works – Early Conciliation The exact extended deadline can be fiddly to calculate, and ACAS conciliators are not permitted to advise on it. If you are anywhere near the limit, treat the matter as urgent.
ACAS Early Conciliation
You cannot submit a tribunal claim without first notifying ACAS.7Acas. Early Conciliation An ACAS conciliator contacts both sides to see whether the dispute can be resolved without a hearing. If terms are agreed, they are written up in a document called a COT3, which is legally enforceable. If the employer later fails to pay what was agreed, there is a free penalty enforcement scheme, and you can also go to court to compel payment.8Acas. Getting Paid as Part of an Acas Settlement
Early conciliation can last up to 12 weeks. At the end, ACAS issues an early conciliation certificate with a unique reference number. You need that number to complete the tribunal claim form; without it, your application will be rejected.9GOV.UK. ET1 – Claim Form A small number of claim types are exempt, but most require it.
Filing the ET1
The ET1 is the official claim form, and precision matters. Use your employer’s exact legal name and registered address. A trading name instead of the registered company name can lead to delays or a strike-out at a preliminary stage. You will also enter your ACAS certificate number, your dates of employment, and your gross and net weekly pay.
The particulars of claim is the key section. Set out what happened in chronological order, keep it factual, and identify the legal right you say was breached. Vague complaints about poor treatment are not enough; the tribunal needs to know what specific acts or omissions you are challenging. State the remedy you want: compensation, reinstatement, or a recommendation that the employer take specific steps.
Submission is through the government’s online portal, with a postal route available. You will receive an acknowledgment and a case number to use in all further correspondence. The tribunal checks the form and the ACAS certificate before accepting the claim.
What Your Employer Does Next
The tribunal sends the ET1 to the employer, who has 28 days to respond on the ET3 form, setting out their defence and identifying which facts they dispute.10GOV.UK. Being Taken to an Employment Tribunal – Overview If the employer fails to respond in time, a judge decides whether a determination can be made on the material already filed and may issue a judgment without a hearing.11Legislation.gov.uk. Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 This is not an automatic win; the judge still has to be satisfied the claim has merit on what you submitted.
Many cases pass through a preliminary hearing before the full hearing. A judge may clarify the legal issues, decide points like whether you qualify as an employee or filed in time, set deadlines for exchanging documents and witness statements, or raise judicial mediation. If the judge thinks part of your claim has little reasonable prospect of success, they can require you to pay a deposit of up to £1,000 to continue with it. The claim does not end there, but losing a deposit order raises the cost risk if you later lose on the same issue.
Preparing for the Hearing
Both sides will usually be ordered to prepare a bundle: a single indexed file of all relevant documents including contracts, emails, meeting notes, grievance letters, and payslips. The contents are agreed between the parties, every page is numbered, and disputes about what goes in waste time. Start on it early.
Each witness, including you, prepares a written witness statement. It should be typed, with numbered paragraphs, in chronological order, cross-referenced to the bundle by page number, and signed with a statement of truth. The statement stands as your evidence-in-chief at the hearing, so anything you want the tribunal to know must be in it. You will not normally get a chance to add things on the day.
You will also prepare a schedule of loss setting out, in money terms, what you are claiming. For unfair dismissal this breaks down into the basic award and the compensatory award. For discrimination, it also includes injury to feelings. Show your workings. A vague request for “substantial compensation” does not help the tribunal assess your claim.
The Hearing Itself
Hearings take place in a tribunal room or by video. An employment judge presides, sometimes with two non-legal members drawn from employer and employee backgrounds. The judge first confirms the issues to be decided, then the evidence begins. Written witness statements are taken as read, so oral evidence goes straight to cross-examination, where the other side tests your account. The judge and any panel members may also ask questions.
Both sides work from the agreed bundle, referring to pages as witnesses are questioned. After the evidence, each side gives closing submissions on why the tribunal should decide in their favour. In shorter cases the judge may give the decision on the day. More often it is reserved and sent to the parties in writing later, sometimes weeks after the hearing.
What You Can Win
Compensation for unfair dismissal has two parts. The basic award uses a statutory formula based on your age, length of service (capped at 20 years), and weekly pay (capped at £751 from April 2026). Under-22s get half a week’s pay per year of service, 22- to 40-year-olds get one week, and those 41 or over get one and a half weeks. The maximum basic award is £22,530.
The compensatory award covers your actual losses from the dismissal, including lost earnings, pension contributions, and benefits. From April 2026 it is capped at £123,543 or 52 weeks’ gross pay, whichever is lower. The cap does not apply where the dismissal was for whistleblowing or certain health and safety reasons. The tribunal will reduce the compensatory award if you have not made reasonable efforts to find new work, or if your own conduct contributed to the dismissal.
Discrimination compensation is uncapped and can include both financial losses and a separate award for injury to feelings. The injury to feelings award follows the Vento bands, updated each April. From April 2026 the bands are £1,300 to £12,600 for less serious cases, £12,600 to £37,700 in the middle band, and £37,700 to £62,900 at the top, with exceptional cases exceeding the upper band.12Judiciary.uk. Vento Bands Presidential Guidance April 2026 Addendum
A tribunal can also order reinstatement (returning you to your old job on the same terms) or re-engagement (placing you in a comparable role). In practice both are rare, because the working relationship has usually broken down by the time a case reaches hearing. If an employer refuses to comply with such an order, an additional compensation award can follow.
If the employer does not pay the award by the date it is entered on the tribunal register, statutory interest accrues at 8% simple interest. On a large award, that adds up fast, and many employers appear not to notice.
Who Pays the Legal Costs
Employment tribunals operate on a “no costs” basis as the general rule. Each side pays its own legal expenses regardless of the outcome, which is a deliberate design choice to stop workers being frightened off by the risk of a large bill. There are exceptions. The tribunal can order you to pay the other side’s costs if your claim had no reasonable prospect of success, if you acted vexatiously or unreasonably in how you conducted the case, or if you caused a hearing to be postponed at short notice. The same rules apply to employers who defend claims unreasonably.
A costs application must be made within 28 days of the final judgment being sent to the parties. Costs orders remain uncommon, but they do happen, particularly where a party ignored clear warnings their case was weak or behaved obstructively. A deposit order earlier in the case substantially increases the costs risk if you lose on the same issue later.
If You Lose and Think the Tribunal Got the Law Wrong
Appeals go to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, with a deadline of 42 days from the date the written judgment (or written reasons, if you requested them) was sent to the parties.13Judiciary.uk. Practice Direction – Employment Appeal Tribunal 2024 You can only appeal on a point of law. Disagreeing with the tribunal’s factual findings or thinking the judge weighed the evidence wrongly is not enough. Grounds typically include misapplying a legal test, failing to consider relevant evidence, or reaching a decision no reasonable tribunal could have reached. The 42-day deadline is strictly enforced, with extensions granted only in exceptional circumstances.