Claimants struggle to collect employment tribunal awards

Hi , just wondering if you can tell me if the present process of receiving an award after a tribunal won , being through a sheriff officer i believe, does this mean it will be paid to me? or can the employer just ignore it and not pay resulting in having to claim through the county courts etc as this was mentioned on a few websites. I know it maybe different in scotland so any suggestions? I have won my case and sent for an extract of awards so hoping i will be paid the money owed soon.

The situation is similar - if you do not get your award, you need to go through the civil courts to enforce the judgment. In Scotland, this means going to the Sheriff Court.

Hi, is it now easier to get the money if they dont pay, are there not high court enforcement officers? If so do you have to wait 42 days before enforcement?

Thank you for your query. The time you have to wait depends on whether or not the judgment contains written reasons - the Government has published some guidance and it is worth referring in particular to page 7 of this document (http://www.employmenttribunals.gov.uk/Documents/Publications/TheJudgment.pdf).

I have an employee taking me to an industrial tribunal. I am trying to keep my business afloat at the moment and I foolishly missed the deadline for submission of the ET3 form by 2 days (my wife was ill with Flu and I had to care for our 2 children so couldn't get the form in on time). I have applied for my defence to be considered based on these facts. If the ex employee wins his case and is awarded the claim which will result in my business folding and 5 people being put out of work can the claim be enforced or is there assistance to pay the claim via my National Insurance contributions?

Thank you for your question, Ian. I can't give you legal advice on your situation, but it might be worth contacting Acas to discuss your situation with them - www.acas.org.uk. I will say that I do not know of any Government-related scheme that would pay for the cost of losing a tribunal claim. You can of course get insurance to guard against the cost of being taken to an employment tribunal. I do not know how difficult/impossible it might be to get this "after the fact", ie after the individual has brought the claim.

My last employer won't pay money that I was awarded when I won at tribunal.

hi there i have won my employment tribunal back in sep 2009 and was awarded 14.500 to be paid to me by the 19th oct 2009. I'm still waiting for my money and get the impression that they are just ignoring me. So in November i paid for bailiffs to go in and recover my money on the 23rd of dec 2009. i then received a letter that they had been granted a stay against my bailiffs pending an appeal on the case. i haven't been given a appeal date as yet on a technicality involving polkey case. the dead line for this is the 11th feb 2010. I'm going to challenge the stay representing myself as the costs are ridiculous now. is there any advice anyone can give me how i can challenge this in county court. i think it is unreasonable for them to continue putting off paying my award when a date was set and the company is still trading and making big profits over the last credit crunch.

Hi my husband also won his tribunal, his award is for over £100,000. Needless to say he has not got it, also his previous employer is continuing to supply bad references, so my husband has been out of work for 2 years.The enforcement office is trying to help, but facts are facts the high court enforcement office has no power, they can merely attend addresses supplied and walk away from them when they are told, no one is there from the company they are looking for. Even though they know lies are told, there is nothing they can do. We have gone to the lenghts of reporting this companies dealings and ask that the goverment investigate it for fraudulent activites, we know there doing it the high court enforcement know it, but still nothing is getting done. This man is playing with our lives and no one cares, and no one can help. Our goverment are saying "get jobs or your benefits will be cut" and now want to charge for taking employers to tribunals. When is the goverment going to stop letting employers who show no regard to the legal system, and countinue to committ acts of fraud and ruin peoples lives; its time someone stepped upto the mark and said enough is enough, their has to be equalitiy, but i fear this will never happen.

I, too, have won an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal. The case was won Nov. 09. I had insurance for contents that covered my trial, but when it came time to actually arrest accounts, they stopped paying my coverage. I then hired the sheriffs officers myself for the arrestment to be told that either the account was wrong or empty. I know the employer changes company names frequently and uses different company accounts. I have found at least 3 different names for the same business at Companies House. I was then told by the Sheriffs Officers that you could do an attachment, where they give 14 days for payment and then can go to the premises and take any cash there (from till or safe). They can break locks but at my expense and they advised against this. They said if the company (it is a restaurant) still trades on those premises, it doesn't matter if the name of the company has changed. The company named on my tribunal still exists at Companies House. And the business still exists with the same name and address and even STAFF. I just received a call after my arrestment today that they provided info that they are a different company. I am absolutely RAGING about this as I KNOW they have a different registered company name but I was told by the Sheriffs Officer that this arrestment was set up so that premises could not continue to trade under old names and not pay their debtors. If anyone can explain this to me, I'd appreciate it. I think I should wait and speak to them about the "documentation", but I feel that everything the sheriffs officers told me was a load of bunk if they were able to squirm out of this. And of course, I am sure I will get a nice little bill for £57.85 or whatever. My award was just under £5000. The system is a total joke.