Criticism
Lay members , or wing members , can add significant value to proceedings at Employment Appeal Tribunals . They are normally experienced HR professionals , small business owners and trade union officials who provide insight to the judge on workplace issues , thus providing a context for the claim being made . This prevents rash decisions being made and improves the quality of decision making .
The Coalition ' s reform in this area could lead to less accurate and justified judgements being made .
Justice Underhill changes to claims process Changes
The way claims are processed is to change under Justice Underhill ' s recommendations , including new ' strike out ' powers that will see cases deemed as ' weak ' thrown out of the process before they are heard by a tribunal , a simplification of the process , and the separation of pre-hearing reviews and case management discussions .
Criticism
The changes brought in under Justice Underhill ' s recommendations are largely technical issues that there is broad agreement to . However , there is some concern that allowing the dismissal of claims that are deemed to be weak before they have been heard by tribunal may be risky . Thompsons Solicitors warned that such decisions must be made according to the content of the claim and not on how the ET1 form is filled out .
The IER supports the simplification of the employment tribunal process , but reform must never make it more likely that rash decisions will be made .
Public Interest Disclosure Act
This section is authored by Catherine Hobby , Senior Lecturer , School of Law & Social
Sciences , University of East London
Three significant amendments are made by the ERRA to the whistleblowing provisions enacted by the Public Interest
Disclosure Act 1998 ( PIDA ), as follows :
8