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Amendments to the Northern Ireland Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal Rules

02/01/2025

The Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 came into effect on 12 December 2024, making amendments to The Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020.

The key amendments include:

  1. Employment Judge Sitting Alone

An Employment Judge may now sit alone in certain circumstances. Whilst the specific conditions for this are not detailed in the Regulations, they may be outlined in a subsequent Practice Direction. Currently Employment Judges in Northern Ireland can sit alone in unlawful deduction from wages claims.

Since 2012, Employment Judges in Great Britain have been allowed to sit alone in unfair dismissal cases. We anticipate that we may follow this approach. In July 2024, the Senior President of the Tribunals in GB issued a Practice Direction which now permits Employment Judges to sit alone in all cases in GB.

  1. Multiple Claimants on a Single Claim Form

In certain circumstances the amendments allow two or more Claimants to make their claim on a single Claim Form. This change is intended to streamline the process for cases involving multiple parties.

  1. Default Judgments and Recording of Judgments

The Regulations provide for the issuance of default judgments and exempt the recording of judgments on the register when a claim is withdrawn.

  1. Reasonable Notice of Hearings

The amendments require reasonable notice of Hearings, which can be less than 14 days if all parties consent. This flexibility is designed to expedite the scheduling of Hearings.

Commentary

As the Employment Tribunal in NI continues to modernise it will be interesting to see whether we adopt the GB practice of allowing Employment Judges to sit alone in all cases.

In our experience lay members play a critical role in Employment Tribunal Hearings by bringing realism and industrial knowledge to the decision-making process. In panels of three, lay members have equal voting power and can out-vote the Employment Judge, although this is rare. Indeed, there was an extensive recruitment campaign for lay members which was completed earlier in 2024 so it will be interesting to see how the extent of their role develops.