EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL WALES REGION CARDIFF USER GROUP MEETING THURSDAY 15th OCTOBER 2015 2:00PM Present Chair – R.A Harper (RAH) Acting Regional Employment Judge Paul Cadney (PC) Employment Judge, Cardiff ET Philip Davies (PD) Employment Judge, Cardiff ET Lyndon Hobbs (LH) Wales Delivery Manager James Forse (JF) Acas Stuart Atherton (SA) Peter Lynn & Partners Helen Coombes Lewis Silkin, Cardiff Ben Cross NHS Wales Rhiannon Dale (RD) Hugh James Solicitors Llinos Davies Geldards LLP Katia Daw Bridgend CBC Malgorzata Evans Capital Law Peter Evans USDAW Rachel Ford-Evans Darwin Gray LLP Liz Frankis (LF) Newport CAB Carolyn Isaac City & County of Swansea Carys Murphy Slater Gordan Ludivine Paulet Lewis Silkin, Cardiff Lisa Reynolds Thompsons Law Jemma Thomas Eversheds Jonathan Walsh Capital Law Eleanor Williams (EW) Equality & Human Rights Commission Lynette Collins Minute Taker, Cardiff ET Apologies David Brinning Temple Court Chambers, Cardiff Sioned Eurig NHS Wales Andrea Johns RCN Wales Gwyn Lloyd Lay Member Damian Phillips Darwin Gray LLP Gabrielle Thomas Kennedys Law Daniela Mahapatra NHS Wales Luke Menzies Menzies Law Gareth Petty Acas Clare Primett NHS Wales 1 Agenda Item Welcome 1 Acting Regional Employment Judge R.A Harper welcomed and thanked all for attending the meeting and introduced panel members Paul Cadney (Employment Judge, Cardiff ET), Philip Davies (Employment Judge, Cardiff ET), Lyndon Hobbs (Wales Delivery Manager) and James Forse (Acas). RAH informed all that he is currently Acting Regional Employment Judge, after the retirement of REJ Stuart Williams at the end of June 2015, until a replacement is appointed. The new REJ is likely to start in December 2015. He also stated that he has not applied for the permanent position. RAH thanked Acas for supplying the buffet for today’s event. There have been some changes with regard to fee-paid judges. John Hoult, who sat mainly in North Wales, and Guy Hollebon are no longer employment judges. Stuart Williams is now a fee-paid employment judge following his retirement as REJ. He is also a fluent Welsh speaker and will be able to conduct cases in Welsh. Court closures – The consultation in relation to proposed closures concluded last week. There are no direct impacts of closures as far as the ET is concerned but there are a considerable number of indirect potential impacts if some of the closures went through. In North Wales for the first 3 weeks of every month we use one courtroom at Wrexham County/Magistrates Court. Also in Wrexham there is a separate tribunal building, Rhyd Broughton, which is used by the SSCS and is one of the possible targets for closure. If Rhyd Broughton closes it might be the case that the SSCS would locate to the Wrexham County/Magistrates Court. The other possible difficulty is in West Wales if the Carmarthen hearing centre closes because the hearing centre in Haverfordwest will increasingly be shared with the SSCS. There is an also potential difficulty as far as Cardiff is concerned because in 2018 the lease on Caradog House expires. It is public knowledge that the landlord of Caradog House has planning permission to turn the building into 380 student rooms and for the work to start in September 2016 before the lease runs out. At present it is not known where the ET will relocate but it is possible a move could be to Cardiff Magistrates Court. However, if Bridgend Magistrates Court closures then they may be relocated to Cardiff Magistrates, which would mean there would be no room for the ET. Fees - The Union challenge in the Court of Appeal regarding the implementation of fees having any impact on tribunal claims did not succeed. The allocation for the use of fee-paid judges for this financial year was very severely reduced. Around 2/3 years ago each of the 12 fee-paid judges had to sit a minimum of 30 days per year. The allocation that we 2 were given for this financial year was 52 days for everyone, which meant around 4 days each. It has now been increased to 120, which might enable us to list more cases. 2 Consideration of Minutes 29th April 2015 – Matters Arising RAH highlighted the action point at agenda item 2 – matters arising re: the inability to save the ET3 online and asked Lyndon Hobbs for an update. LH – Enquiries were made regarding the saving of the ET3 after the last user group meeting in April 2015. The save and return facility is on the ‘to-do’ list but it is not at present considered to be a priority because of the on-going work with the ET1 form. 3 Acas Update RAH introduced James Forse, Acas. Acas are to move premises in early November from Dumballs Road to 4th Floor, Companies House as part of the Government’s drive to have all public sectors on Crown Estates. Cases received - Notifications on early conciliation hover between 700- 900. However, within these are duplicate notifications. Duplications arise where people are unclear about who they are making a claim against. Section 18B employer led received nationally at 2,163 up to the end of September 2015. Section 18A employee led received nationally at 52,291. Of these, 13,149 did not progress to conciliation. ET1 received nationally – 13,969. COT 3 Resolution – Nationally - Section 18B resolving 88%. Section 18A resolving 17%. ET1’s settling at 54%. COT 3 Resolution – Wales - Section 18B resolving 77%. Section 18A 18%. ET1’s settling at 54%. Equal Pay and single status – Acas are dealing with two authorities in Wales with one possible authority to join. Acas are seeing a lot of collective disputes in various different sectors. Helpline – To the end of August 2015 the helpline has taken 385,137 calls. Calls taken in Wales to the end of September 2015 at 23,962. Wales also offers the EC support officer service, therefore the call length is slightly longer in Wales (9m 28s) than the national average (7m 45s). 3 Acas are recruiting a limited number of additional helpline advisors and conciliators. It is hoped they will be trained and operational by the beginning of 2016. Helpline online – Average of 3.5 visits per person as queries not always resolved in first visit. 1,490,301 interactions, 99% queries resolved, Total 424,895 visitors. Twitter and Ask Acas online cover shared parental leave – Are employers ready for this? Zero hours contracts and Acas events. In June a new guide was launched for small firms on how to handle staff pay and Brendan Barber launched a new report on UK productivity. In July new advice was published to help employers revise their equality and diversity in the workplace. Also published in August is new advice to help employers improve their recruitment induction, tips for students looking for work after their exam results, advice for new employers and help to prevent young workers from feeling exploited and discriminated against. Holiday Pay – Acas are receiving multiple holiday pay (Bear Scotland) cases at present. Acas have a designated ‘drop-box’ system where we drop into our system any holiday pay related cases where collective conciliation can be offered, if appropriate, to resolve the issue. Acas continue to deliver training events, conferences and mock mediations/tribunals around the UK for organisations and individuals. LF commented on the great service received from Acas but also raised an I.T. query. In terms of duplicate respondents, which is common with discrimination cases where there are valid reasons for duplication, when completing the applications we have to start the duplicate from the beginning. What would be useful would be to be able to start the second form which is already populated with the claimant's information and just changing the respondent. Action JF - Acas have had discussions with BIS about the way the information Point comes to us, but I will enquire if it is possible to retain the information, as JF it is a valid point. RAH recently visited the Acas offices and listened in on calls on the helpline, early conciliation stage and post issue conciliation. It was very interesting and he congratulated Acas on their professionalism. Administration Update 4 RAH introduced Lyndon Hobbs, Delivery Manager, Cardiff ET LH gave an update of the caseload figures for the Cardiff Employment Tribunal. SA raised the point of the time taken of notification to the respondent of 4 the ET1 being issued, but understands that fees are dealt with in Leicester. LH – The ET are dependent upon when the claim comes through to us. If the fee is paid straight away it automatically generates a claim on our I.T. system and we act upon that almost immediately. If there is a remission application then it can take some time depending upon what information is required to process that remission. We have completed analysis on the remission process and on average it has taken around 2-3 weeks for those claims to come through on our system. 5 Equal Pay Update RAH introduced Philip Davies, Employment Judge, Cardiff ET In September 2015 the figure for equal pay local authority cases were 2,195. At the end of April 2015 the figure was 4,201. The downward slope is due to the work being done by the local authorities’ and claimants’ solicitors to agree settlements. Number of claims: Highest number is Powys x 367 - A number of settlements have taken place but we have not been officially informed; Lowest is Wrexham x 1 case; Cardiff x 1; Other examples are Blaenau Gwent x 3; Vale of Glamorgan x 8; Denbigh x 24; Newport x 97 and Swansea x 251.