Preparing for an employment tribunal

All information is given in good faith but Tim Field is not a legal professional and cannot accept any responsibility for actions arising out of the information on this page. In all matters the services of a competent qualified professional should be sought.

Updated May 2002

This page contains information on the employment tribunal process in England and Wales. The employment tribunal process in Scotland and Northern Ireland is similar although there may be minor variations in procedure and relevant laws, especially on discrimination.

On the ET1 form include both the name of the bully and the name of the employer as respondents - this stops each blaming the other and ensures that their names appear in the official record, and, if you are successful, they become enshrined in case law.

Familiarise yourself with case law and settlements - see action/caselaw.htm for an overview.

Case law on unfair and constructive dismissal in the UK is covered in chapter 14 of Bully in sight: how to predict, resist, challenge and combat workplace bullying

A successful personal injury claim must satisfy these two criteria: a) a claimant's injury must constitute a clinically diagnosed psychiatric illness therefore catch-all conditions such as "stress", "anxiety" and "depression" will not suffice, and b) an employer will only owe a duty of care to an employee if it is reasonable foreseeable (to an ordinary bystander) that a "psychiatric disorder" will arise. Case law is Rorrison v. West Lothian College and Lothian Regional Council

If you believe your physical or psychological integrity are threatened by the actions of a fellow employee then the "circumstances of danger" referred to in section 100(1)(d) of the Employment Rights Act (1996) may apply. Case law is Harvest Press Ltd v. McCaffrey.

Cases which should be referenced:

Walker v. Northumberland County Council, is (was) the lead case on stress. John Walker was a social worker who had a stress breakdown because of work overload. He recovered, went back to work but the employer did not improve working conditions, and if anything made them worse. Mr Walker suffered a second stress breakdown and the aware £275,000) was made on the basis of the second stress breakdown.

Since Walker v. Northumberland County Council, a bullied worker needs two stress breakdowns before legal action for psychiatric injury is likely to succeed. The new case of Long v. Mercury Mobile Communications Services (May 2001) has established an important precedent that a claim can be brought for the first stress breakdown following a period of bullying and harassment. Employers can no longer ignore bullying and will now find it much harder to defend themselves against the vicarious liability caused by the serial bully in their midst. Details at media/releases.htm#PR16

The Long case follows these recent significant cases:

Johnson v. Unisys in which the Law Lords decreed that they see "no reason why, in an appropriate case, [the amount of compensation] should not include compensation for distress, humiliation, damage to their reputation in the community or to family life". This is the first time a judgement has indicated that unfair dismissal claimants might be compensated at tribunal for injury to feelings.

Waters v. London Metropolitan Police (action/waters.htm) in which the Law Lords decreed that an employee (or in this case an office holder) has the right to sue for negligence if bullying and harassment - which the employer was aware of but took no action to deal with - results in psychiatric injury.

Sheriff v. Klyne Tugs (Lowestoft) Ltd which decreed that personal injury resulting from discrimination and harassment should be judged at employment tribunal rather than in a separate personal injury case. Whether this also applies to bullying was not made clear.

General advice on action to tackle bullying: action/index.htm

Out of court settlements which are useful to mention during proceedings are list on the case law page at action/caselaw.htm

These pages are unreferenced at bully OnLine:

Strategy and phraseology: action/words.htm

Informing your employer you are suffering stress because of bullying: action/inform.htm

Winning your disability case: action/disability.htm

Time limits for bringing a personal injury case: action/timelim.htm

Dealing with a bad reference: action/referenc.htm

Dealing with a gagging clause: action/gagclaus.htm

Beware of unqualified and inexperienced people calling themselves "lawyers", "advocates" and "consultants": action/lawyer.htm

Tim Field
Webmaster, Bully OnLine at www.bullyonline.org
Moderator, BullyOnline action forum
Author, Bully in sight: how to predict, resist, challenge and combat workplace bullying