Hart Publishing (an imprint of Bloomsbury) has published Reimagining Employment Dispute Resolution and Enforcement by Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor of European, and Sarah Fraser Butlin KC, Affiliated Lecturer.
This major new open-access book offers a comprehensive blueprint to overhaul the UK’s creaking employment tribunal system, which currently leaves some claimants waiting up to five years for a full hearing.
The book draws on a large-scale empirical study, including a survey of over 200 practitioners, to examine the acute problems facing workplace conflict resolution. Its publication was launched at the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) annual conference in May, and was also showcased in an event at the House of Commons on 22 June, hosted by Sarah Russell MP.
The authors argue that the current framework is broken, marked by extensive delays and significant financial and human costs. A primary driver of the backlog is the rising volume of legally complex, document-heavy discrimination and whistleblowing claims, which now constitute up to 70 per cent of all cases received by tribunals. Furthermore, the phased introduction of the new Employment Rights Act is expected to increase tribunal caseloads by up to a third over the coming year.
Current University of Cambridge staff and student members can access the ebook via iDiscover.
On 24 June Professor Barnard was interviewed about the book by Joshua Rosenberg for an episode of his "A Lawyer Talks" podcast, entitled "Not Working".
For more information about the book, please refer to the Bloomsbury website.
Current University of Cambridge staff and student members can access the ebook via iDiscover.
For information about publications by Professor Barnard and Ms Fraser Butlin, please refer to their Faculty profiles.