England and Wales where the provision was invoked at an employment tribunal hearing .
Furthermore , in the House of Lords , Baroness Thornton highlighted that it is impossible to measure how effective the third-party harassment protection had been because it had only been in place for two years . She argued that the proposals were not " in the interests of society ".
Removal of the right to obtain information in discrimination cases Changes
Currently , people who believe they have been discrimination against in the workplace have the right to obtain information from their employer in order to see whether or not they have a case . This right will be removed through the ERRA .
Criticism
This proposal should be seen in the context of the government ' s overall aim - to reduce the number of employment tribunals that take place . When employees feel they have been discriminated against , they may check whether they are correct by obtaining information from their employer . Without this right , it seems the government hopes fewer cases will go to court .
If this is truly the government ' s motivation , and the Coalition has predicted the outcome correctly , there is an obvious human cost that reflects a profit-over -people ideological drive the Institute of Employment Rights has spotted throughout the present government ' s policies and mapped in our Coalition timeline .
However , there are suggestions that removing the right to obtain information in discrimination cases will actually increase the number of claims going to the tribunal service .
At the IER ' s Equality and Discrimination 2012 event in Liverpool , Felicia Epstein of Pattinson & Brewer Solicitors expressed her concern about this policy , as the information obtained by the employer is a principle method by which workers find out if they have a case at all . This might actually lead to more weak cases making it to court .
Her view was repeated in the House of Lords by Baroness Thornton , who stated that many workers may in fact feel forced to begin proceedings despite a lack of evidence received through obtaining information from the employer . She argued that the Coalition ' s method of trying to stop these workers from making a claim was to charge them a prohibitive amount for taking a claim to court - at £ 250 just to issue a claim and £ 950 for a hearing .
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