ABSTRACT
By the mid-1990s the UK tribunal system was becoming ill equipped to cope with the demands placed upon it by an extended system of individual rights and the expansion of tribunals’ jurisdiction to include certain contract claims on termination of employment giving rise to over 70 different types of complaint. There were undue delays in cases being heard, too much legalism in tribunal proceedings and high operating costs. The Employment Relations (Disputes Resolution) Act 1998 renamed industrial tribunals as employment tribunals. Other changes included an extension to the circumstances in which the Chair can sit alone, and giving tribunals wider powers to dispose simply and swiftly uncontested and untenable claims, without the need for a formal or full hearing. The scope of compromise agreements was widened to settle a whole range of disputes (Lucas, 1998: 11-12).
