Can I go to an employment tribunal?

This guide is for anyone who has been treated poorly at work and wants to understand if they can take the issue to an employment tribunal.

This guide covers the law and process in England and Wales. The process is slightly different in both Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Last updated: September 2024

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you have not been paid what you should.
you have been badly treated at work, such as being discriminated against or harassed.
you have not been allowed the holiday, time off work, or breaks at work that you should have been.
you worked for your employer for two years and were not paid the correct redundancy pay.
you been allowed your rights as a pregnant member of staff or a parent.
you have unfairly lost your job or have been treated so unfairly you felt you had to quit. To take a case like this to an employment tribunal, you usually must have worked for your employer for more than 2 years and had employee status.

There could be other reasons.

Employment tribunals do not have the power to deal with every work-related problem. Someone has to have broken the law or breached your contract for you to take them to employment tribunal. It might be that what happened to you was unpleasant or unfair, but not unlawful. For example, if you are being treated badly at work because of a protected characteristic, you can take that to a tribunal because that is discrimination. But if you were treated badly for another reason you might not. See discrimination at work for more details.

You usually take your employer, ex-employer or an employer you applied for a job with to an employment tribunal. By ‘employer’ we mean the organisation you work for, rather than your boss – although in a very small organisation these might be the same.

You can also take your trade union if you believe they have treated you unlawfully (for example, discriminated against you or if you have been sexually harassed by their staff or office holders).

If the same unlawful thing that happened to you at work, happened to others you may be able to take a case as a group. You can also take separate claims and ask for the tribunal to deal with all the cases together. You might do this if you were all made redundant unfairly or if you have an indirect discrimination claim. This is called a multiple claim – only one of you needs to complete the form/online form but they must provide the details of all of the other people that want to be part of the claim.

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Before you can take a case to an employment tribunal, you usually should have used your employer’s grievance procedures. See Before you can start a case at employment tribunal.

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Scotland and Northern Ireland

Find out more about the process in Scotland from Citizens Advice.

Find out more about the process in Northern Ireland on Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal. (This information about Northern Irish process is very brief so read these guides for more help on how to decide if you really want to go to employment tribunal, how to value your claim, how to negotiate a settlement, and how to do a witness statement).

We understand how being treated unfairly at work can impact your whole life, even how you see yourself.

We have written this guide to help you if you cannot find an adviser to help you for free, and cannot afford to pay for legal help. We suggest you read all of the guides in the series.

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There are strict time limits for taking a case to the employment tribunal.

You usually need to start your case within 3 months of whatever you are complaining about. So, if you have been unfairly sacked (dismissed from your job), you have 3 calendar months minus one day from your last day of work. If you are complaining about ongoing behaviour (for example, bullying or harassment), you need to start your case within 3 calendar months minus day one of the last time this happened.

For example, if you were subjected to racist bullying at work on June 3rd, you would have until 11:59pm on September 2nd to start your case.

If your case is about redundancy pay or equal pay, you have to start your case within 6 months. That is 6 months minus one day.

For example, if you become aware that you are being paid less than someone of the opposite sex for a similar role within your organisation on June 3rd, you would have until 11:59pm on December 2nd to start your case.

There are exceptions to this, so if you think you are too late, it may be worth getting specific advice. Acas helpline will be able to advise on this. Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) are an organisation funded by the government to help resolve workplace disputes.

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The deadline to start your case with the tribunal is extended the moment you inform Acas that you want to take a case to tribunal. This is to enable both sides to see if they can resolve the issue using ‘early conciliation’. So, if the deadline is approaching fast, tell Acas you want to take a case to tribunal (see Before you can start a case at employment tribunal).

If you have been unfairly sacked and want your job back or compensation while you wait for your case to be heard, you may need to make a claim within 7 days of being told your job was ending. The law calls this ‘interim relief’ and only some people are entitled to ask for it. Find out if you are one of those people by reading the interim relief guidance from Acas.

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If you think you might take your complaint to tribunal, it is important to gather evidence and keep it safe.

Evidence is very important as you need to be able to prove the essential parts of your claim happened, and how much it cost you.

This could include:

Evidence of the problem – if you didn’t get paid as you should, that will be evidence of your payslips, hours worked, your contract, any relevant policies or procedures, letters or emails you sent or received about the problem etc.
If you experienced discrimination or harassment, that will be any evidence you have that the discrimination or harassment took place - a diary you kept, emails, text messages, details of any witnesses and what they said they saw.
You might also need evidence that the treatment you received wasn’t for a non-discriminatory reason, such as because you were not good at your job. Records of supervisions, evidence of your performance, and things like sales figures will help.
If it is a discrimination claim (which includes bullying or harassment), you also need to keep evidence of how the discrimination made you feel. And any impact it had on your mental health. This will be important in assessing the amount of compensation you should get.
That might be text messages or emails you sent to family or friends, medical evidence that you went to see a doctor about it, or had to take medication, records of days you took off as a result of how you felt.
It is also important to record exactly which discriminatory words or phrases were used -so it is a good idea to send yourself an email or text (it is a useful way to make a record) of what was said and how it made you feel as close to the time that they were said as possible.
Evidence of the amount of money it cost you (what the law calls ‘your losses’). For example, if you have lost your job you will need payslips from your old job that show how much you were earning, and also payslips from any new job or statements of benefits you received.
Keep a diary of any expenses you had to pay while looking for a job – bus fares to interviews, printing costs of job applications, etc. Keep the receipts too.
Evidence that you tried to reduce the amount of money it cost you. This could be that you tried to get another job – a record of jobs you applied for and/or recruitment agencies your registered with, or training you did.

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Don’t break any rules
You want to keep any evidence you can but you must not break your employer’s rules about confidential information as if you do you could harm your case for compensation. Look at your company’s policies – do they have any rules about not forwarding emails to personal accounts, or not keeping company information? If they do not, you could forward any evidence you have on your work email account to a personal account, or take screenshots, photocopies or printouts of any evidence.

If they do have any rules that prevent this, instead keep a record of what evidence does exist (for example, an email your employer sent you on …… date, with the subject heading …..) so that you can ask them for it once the case has begun. See What to do with the evidence.

There are things you must do before you can start an employment tribunal claim.

These are explained in another guide in this series - Before you can start a case at employment tribunal.

Next Guide >> Is it worth going to employment tribunal?

Employment

Is it worth going to employment tribunal?

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The information in this guide applies to England and Wales.

The law is complicated. We recommend you try to get advice from the sources we have suggested.

The cases we refer to are not always real but show a typical situation. We have included them to help you think about how to deal with your own situation.

Acknowledgements

Advicenow is grateful to the Ministry of Justice for funding the creation of this guide under the Online Support and Advice Grant.

Advicenow would like to thank everyone who provided advice and feedback on this guide, particularly Chris Lake, Rebecca Thomas of 42BR Barristers, and editorial teams at Thomson Reuters who kindly peer reviewed it.

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