Clause 22 - Employment tribunals
Employment Bill
10:30 am
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Employment and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
No, I do not, but a third of those costs awards were awarded not against the applicant but against the respondents, because their case was so poor: for example, they did not pay the national minimum wage or the right redundancy payments, or they had such an outrageous defence that the case did not stand up, or they failed to turn up to put their defence to the court. It is a misconception that the costs awards are always against the applicant to an employment tribunal. We have no details of how many cases involved employers' organisations.