Tribunals Service - Employment    

ET1 Guidance Notes
Advice While it is not essential that you take advice before you make a claim to an employment tribunal, you may feel it is helpful to do so – particularly, for example, if your claim involves discrimination. We have designed these guidance notes to be as helpful as possible, but they do not give a full statement of the law. If you are a member of a trade union, they may be able to help you. There are also free advice agencies such as Citizens Advice and law centres who may be able to help. If your claim involves discrimination (depending on the nature of the discrimination), the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality or the Disability Rights Commission may be able to help you. Solicitors may be able to offer advice either for a fee or under the Legal Help Scheme (in Scotland, Legal Aid).

Time Limits It is very important you get your claim to the employment tribunal office on time. Most complaints must be made within three months of the act complained about. This means that if the matter you are complaining about happened on 1 March, we must receive your claim on or before 31 May; if it happened on 5 March, we must receive your claim on or before 4 June. However, in certain circumstances, for example, when your complaint is based on a grievance, these limits may be extended by three months. You may wish to take advice. The circumstances in which time limits may be extended are set out in the DTI booklet, 'Resolving disputes: a guide for employees', which is available from http://www.dti.gov.uk/employment/Resolving_disputes/index.html

Correspondence In future correspondence we will refer to you as the 'claimant'.
  • We will refer to the person you are complaining against as the 'respondent'.
  • We will send a copy of this form and of any other documents you send us to the respondent.
  • We will send you copies of all the documents the respondent sends us.
  • Any decision made by the tribunal will be sent to you and the respondent.
  • You must let us know immediately if you change your address or other contact details.
  • If you have a representative, we will send all correspondence about your case to them and not to you. Similarly, you must pass any further requests for information through them and not straight to us.

Pre-acceptance procedure Your claim cannot be accepted unless it meets certain conditions. For example, from October 1 2005 it must be on an approved form provided by the Employment Tribunals Service. By law, you must tell us your name and address, the name and address of the respondent or respondents, the details of your complaint and whether or not you are or were an employee of the respondent. If you are, or were, an employee of the respondent you need to tell us whether your claim relates to a dismissal or contemplated dismissal.

If you are or were an employee of the respondent and your claim does not relate to you being dismissed or to a contemplated dismissal, you must also tell us whether or not you have raised your complaint in writing with the respondent at least 28 days before presenting your claim to a tribunal office. If you have not done so, you must give a valid reason why this legal requirement did not have to be met in your particular case. You may wish to take advice. A full list of possible reasons, along with detailed guidance, is given in the DTI / Citizens Advice booklet, 'Resolving disputes: a guide for employees.'

If you do not provide the information marked with an asterisk (*) your claim will not be accepted. If relevant to your claim you must also give the information marked with a hash (#).

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Filling in the form
1 Your Details
1.1   Tick the relevant box to show whether you want to be referred to as Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms. If none of these is correct, put your title in the space after 'Other'.
1.2*   Give your first name or names.
1.3*   Give your surname or family name in CAPITAL letters.
1.4   Give your date of birth in day/month/year format (for example 25/02/1965) and tick the relevant box to tell us whether you are male or female.
1.5*   Give your full address, including house number, road, area, town, county and postcode.
1.6   Give us a phone number including the full dialling code where we can contact you during normal working hours.
1.7   Tick the relevant box to say how you would prefer us to contact you in future and give us your email address or fax number as appropriate. Please do not give an e-mail address unless you check your e-mails every day. Although we will usually try to use e-mail if you want us to, this may not always be possible as some documents need to be signed by a chairman.

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2 Respondent's details
    It is important that you provide accurate information about the organisation or person you are complaining about (the respondent). Please tell us the correct identity of the respondent to avoid any delay in processing your claim. You should be able to identify this by looking at the letter that offered you your job, your contract of employment or your wage slip. Please remember to include 'Ltd' or 'plc' if appropriate. We will send a copy of your claim to the respondent so that they can prepare a response to your complaint.
2.1*   Give the name of your employer or the organisation or person you are complaining about. Complaints are usually against a company, a business or an organisation, rather than an individual person. However, if you are claiming discrimination, you may be able to claim against both the organisation and the person (or people) responsible for the acts of discrimination. If you do wish to complain about a person (or people) put the name of the organisation in this box and the name and address of the person (or people) in 2.4.
2.2*   Give the respondent's full address, postcode and telephone number.
2.3   Give the full address and postcode of the place where you worked, or applied to work, if this is different from the respondent's address you gave at 2.2. Please say if you worked from home, as we will treat your home address and postcode as your workplace.
2.4#   Complaints are usually against a company, a business or an organisation, rather than an individual person. However, if you are claiming discrimination, you may be able to claim against both the organisation and the person (or people) responsible for the acts of discrimination. If the organisation you are complaining about has transferred from one company to another, you may want to get advice on whether to name both organisations as respondents. Give the full names, addresses and postcodes of any further respondents here.

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3 Action before making a claim
3.1*   Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not you are, or were, an employee of the respondent (or one of them, if there is more than one). In most cases, this should be a straightforward question to answer. However, in some cases, particularly where a "nontraditional" working arrangement is involved, it may raise complicated legal issues. An employee, for these purposes, is someone who works under a "contract of employment" - but bear in mind that a contract need not be in writing: it can be written, oral, implied by the parties' behaviour, or a combination of all three. If you are in any doubt about whether or not you are, or were, an employee of the respondent, you might want to get advice. If you are, or were, an employee, please now go straight to section 3.3.
3.2   Please answer this question only if you have said, in answer to question 3.1, that you are not, or were not, an employee of the respondent. Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not you are, or were, a worker providing services to the respondent. A worker, for these purposes, is someone who had a "contract for services" with the respondent - but, again, bear in mind that a contract need not be in writing. Someone working under a "contract for services" is technically selfemployed, but may have a relationship with a work provider that is similar to the relationship between an employee and an employer. If you are, or were, a worker, please now go straight to section 4. If you are not, please now go straight to section 6.
3.3#   If you were employed by the respondent, please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not your complaint, or part of your complaint, is about a dismissal or a contemplated dismissal. If your complaint, or part of your complaint, is about a constructive dismissal (that is when you resigned because of something your employer did or failed to do which made you feel you could no longer continue to work for them) please tick the box here and the 'Yes' box in 3.4. Then answer questions 3.5 to 3.7.
3.4#   If your claim relates to something in addition to dismissal (for example, you claim you are owed unpaid wages) you should answer 'Yes' here and answer questions 3.5 to 3.7 about the non-dismissal aspect of your claim. If your claim is only about a dismissal or a contemplated dismissal (other than a constructive dismissal), please answer 'No' here and now go straight to section 4.
3.5#   Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not you have raised your complaint with your employer in writing. If you have done so, please give the date on which it was sent in day/month/year format (for example 25/10/2004). If you have not raised your complaint in writing with your employer, please now go straight to section 3.7.
3.6#   Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not you have allowed at least 28 days from the date you put your complaint to your employer. If you have done so, please now go straight to section 4.
3.7#   Please explain why you did not raise your complaint in writing with your employer or, if you did, why you did not allow at least 28 days before sending us your claim. You may wish to take advice. A full list of possible reasons, along with detailed guidance, is given in the DTI / Citizens Advice booklet, 'Resolving disputes: a guide for employees'.

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4 Employment details
4.1   If your complaint is against your employer or ex-employer, please give the dates of when your employment started and, if it applies, when it ended or will end. Use day/month/year format (for example 08/03/1995). Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not your employment is continuing.
If you are not, or were not, an employee, but are, or were, a worker providing services to the respondent, please answer this and the following questions as if "employment" referred to your working relationship with the respondent.
4.2   Please say what job you do or did for your employer and give your job title if you have or had one.
4.3   Please give the basic number of hours you work or worked each week – do not include overtime even if you work or worked it regularly.
4.4   Give details of your basic pay, before tax and any deductions and not including any overtime payments. Please make clear whether the figures are for each hour, each week or each month. Then give details of your normal take-home pay (in other words, after tax, National Insurance and any other deductions but including overtime, commissions and bonuses) each week or each month.
4.5   If your employment has ended, please tick the appropriate box to say if you either worked or were paid for a period of notice. If so, please tell us how long you worked or were paid for.

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5 Unfair dismissal or constructive dismissal
    You only need to fill in this section if you are complaining about being unfairly dismissed by the respondent or if you have resigned because of something your employer did or failed to do which made you feel you could no longer continue to work for them (this is known as constructive dismissal).
5.1#   Please use the box provided to explain why you think you were unfairly dismissed and give any other information you think would be helpful to us. If you disagree with the reason the respondent gave for dismissing you, please say what you think the reason was. You should describe the events which led up to your dismissal and describe how the dismissal took place, including dates, times and the people involved.
If you are claiming that the respondent's actions led you to resign and leave your job, please explain in detail the circumstances surrounding this.
If there is not enough space for your answer, please continue on a separate sheet and attach it to this form.
5.2   Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not you were in your employer's pension scheme.
5.3   Give details of any other benefits you received from your employer. Examples might include a company car or medical insurance. Please describe what kind of benefit you received and give an idea of how much it was worth.
5.4   Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not you have got another job since leaving your employment. If you have not, please now go straight to section 5.7.
5.5   If you have got another job, please tell us when you started (or will start) work. Please say whether the job is permanent or temporary. If it is temporary, give the likely date it is due to end (if you know it).
5.6   Please tell us the amount you are earning (or will earn) each week, month or year in your new job.
5.7   Please tick the appropriate box to say what you want if your claim is successful.

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6 Discrimination
    You only need to fill in this section if you are complaining that you have been discriminated against. Discrimination can take place on the grounds of sex (this includes complaints regarding equal pay and about pregnancy and maternity issues), race, sexual orientation, religion or belief or for a reason related to a disability. Discrimination laws cover all areas of employment including recruitment, training, promotion and dismissal. They also cover victimisation. Events that happen after you have left employment can also be covered by discrimination laws. In the case of sex, race and disability discrimination, the relevant commission can provide a questionnaire to help you decide whether or not to start proceedings and, if so, to develop and present your case in the most effective way.
6.1#   Please tick the appropriate box or boxes to say which type or types of discrimination you are complaining about.
6.2#   Please describe the incidents which you believe amounted to discrimination, the dates of these incidents and the people who were involved. Explain why you think you were discriminated against. If you are complaining about discrimination when you applied for a job, please say what job you were applying for. If you are complaining about more than one type of discrimination, please provide separate details of the act (or acts) of discrimination.
You may want to describe how you have been affected by the events you are complaining about. If you are unable to give the dates of all the incidents you are complaining about, you must at least give the date of the last incident or tell us if the discrimination is ongoing.
If there is not enough space for your answer, please continue on a separate sheet and attach it to this form.

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7 Redundancy payments
    You only need to fill in this section if you are complaining that you are owed a redundancy payment.
7.1#   If you are claiming a redundancy payment please say whether you have asked your employer for payment. If so, please give the date in day/month/year format (for example 25/10/04). Please say whether or not you have applied to a Redundancy Payments Office for payment. If you have applied to a Redundancy Payments Office, please tell us whether or not your claim has been rejected, and, if so, the date shown on the rejection letter.

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8 Other payments you are owed
    You only need to fill in this section if you are complaining that the respondent owes you money other than a redundancy payment.
8.1#   Please tick the appropriate box (or boxes) to show what money you think is owed to you. Say whether you are complaining about outstanding unpaid wages, holiday pay, payment for a period of notice or some other payment. Other unpaid amounts could include unpaid expenses, commission or a bonus.
8.2   Tell us how much you are claiming and tick the appropriate box to say whether it is before or after tax.
8.3#   Please explain why you believe you are entitled to this payment, setting out full details such as the period the payment covers and the rate of pay. If you have specified an amount, please say how you worked this out. If you are claiming more than one type of payment, please give the amounts you are claiming for each type of payment and explain how you worked out each amount.

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9 Other complaints
    You only need to fill in this section if your claim is not covered by any of the earlier questions relating to unfair or constructive dismissal, discrimination, or redundancy or other outstanding payments. For example, your complaint may be that you have suffered a detriment at work because you raised an issue of public interest which you believed was a protected disclosure (whistleblowing).
9.1#   Please explain the events leading up to your claim and explain the nature of your complaint. If possible, please tell us the relevant law which applies to your claim. Please include any relevant dates. If there is not enough space for your answer, please continue on a separate sheet and attach it to this form.

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10 Other information
10.1   Please do not send a covering letter with your claim form. You should give us any extra information that you want to tell us here. If you have any special needs (for example, because of a disability) please give details here so we can help you. You may want to give an explanation of why your claim is out of time or to let us know that internal grievance or dismissal and disciplinary procedures have not yet been completed.

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11 Disability
11.1   Please tick 'Yes' if you consider that you have a disability. If you have ticked 'Yes' please say what this disability is and give details of any help you may need from tribunal staff. Examples of the help we can provide include converting documents to Braille or larger print, providing information on audio tape and paying for sign - language interpreters.

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12 Your representative
    You only need to fill in this section if you have appointed a representative. A person you ask to act on your behalf is known as your representative. We will deal only with your representative if you appoint one – we will not deal directly with you. Please do not give the name of a representative unless they have agreed to act for you. Do not give the name of a person or organisation who is only giving you advice on filling in this form.
12.1   If you know the name of the person representing you, give it here. If you don't know it, leave this section blank.
12.2   Give the full name of the representative's organisation (for example, the union, firm of solicitors or Citizens Advice).
12.3   Give the representative's organisation's full address and postcode.
12.4   Give the representative's phone number including the full dialling code.
12.5   Give the reference number your representative has given to your case (if you know it).
12.6   Tick the appropriate box to say how they would prefer us to contact them in future (if you know) and give us the fax number or e-mail address as appropriate. Please do not include an e-mail address unless the representative checks their e-mails every day.

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13 Multiple claims
13.1   If you are aware that your claim is one of a number of claims arising from the same or similar circumstances, that is, same or similar complaints against the same respondent, please tick ‘Yes’ here. This will help tribunal staff to process these claims efficiently.

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Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
You are not obliged to fill in this section but, if you do so, it would help us to monitor our processes and promote equal opportunities. The information you give us will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not form part of your case. It may be used for general research purposes where you will not be identified.

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