Employment Tribunal Naming and Shaming Scheme

How well is the Employment Tribunal naming and shaming scheme working?

The short answer is not well at all.

In December 2018 the government announced a new initiative to name and shame employers who fail to pay an Employment Tribunal award within a certain amount of time.

This was one of the recommendations of the Taylor review of modern work and working practices.

The new scheme applied to Tribunal awards registered on or after 18 December 2018.

The purpose of the scheme is quite obvious. It was intended to be a deterrent, thereby encouraging employers to pay Tribunal awards on time.

There is a similar scheme in relation to employers you do not pay the national minimum wage. The intention was that offending employers names would be published on the gov.uk website.

As reported in the Guardian, a freedom of information request revealed that the Department of Business and Trade has been notified 3713 times about employers who have failed to comply with Tribunal awards.

Nonetheless, of that number, not a single name of a defaulting employer has been published pursuant to the scheme.

Hopefully the operation of the scheme will improve.

We will keep you informed if there are any developments.

This is not legal advice; it is intended to provide information of general interest about current legal issues.