News

This page will be used to give you information about forthcoming publications or consultations relevant to the work of the Industrial Tribunals and/or the Fair Employment Tribunal.

Please use ET1 (NI) revised April 2011 for claims where the matters you are complaining about occurred solely on or after 3 April 2011.

If the matters you are complaining about occurred fully or in part (even where the matters being complained about are ongoing) prior to 3 April 2011 you should be aware that the former statutory dispute resolution regulations as stated in Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 may still apply to your complaint.  If that is the case, you should use the ET1 (NI) revised June 2009



The Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 comes into operation on 3rd April 2011.

The Act makes provision about the procedures for the resolution of employment disputes and the procedures of industrial tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal.

• Repeal of statutory grievance procedures
In the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 (NI 15) the following provisions (which relate to the statutory grievance procedures) are repealed -
(a) Articles 19 and 20;
(b) Part 2 of Schedule 1.
Schedule 1 of the Act contains consequential amendments.•

Statutory dispute resolution procedures: effect on contracts of employment
Article 16 of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 (which provides for every contract of employment to have effect to require the employer and employee to comply with statutory dispute resolution procedures) is repealed.

• Statutory dispute resolution procedures: consequential adjustment of time limits
Articles 21 and 22 of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 (which make provision about time limits for beginning proceedings where a statutory dispute resolution procedure applies) are repealed.

Non-compliance with statutory Codes of Practice
In certain circumstances where an employee or an employer has failed to comply with the Code and that failure was unreasonable, the tribunal may, if it considers it just and equitable in all the circumstances to do so, reduce any award it makes to the employee by no more than 50%.

Powers of Fair Employment Tribunal in relation to matters within jurisdiction of industrial tribunals
The bill will allow the Fair Employment Tribunal to hear all claims which could be heard by an Industrial Tribunal so removing the need for separate hearings.

Enforcement of sums payable
Awards made by an Industrial Tribunal shall be enforceable as if it were payable under an order of the county court..




Your attention is drawn to the new Appeals Procedure on a point of law introduced by The Rules of the Court of Judicature (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) 2010.  
There are now 2 forms of Appeal to the Court of Appeal on a point of law.  They are:

(1) Direct Appeal to the Court of Appeal

(i) A party, known as the appellant, who is dissatisfied on a point of law with a decision of the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal must serve a notice of appeal on all parties to the case and the Tribunal within 6 weeks of receiving a copy of the Tribunal’s decision.  The notice of appeal must state the questions of law upon which the appeal is brought.

(ii)The appellant must also, within 7 days after serving the notice of appeal (referred to above) on all the parties to the case and the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal, enter the appeal for hearing by lodging in the Central Office, Royal Courts of Justice, Chichester Street, Belfast, BT1 3JF:  

(a) 2 copies of the notice of appeal;

(b) a certified copy of the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal’s decision (obtainable free of charge from the Secretary to the Industrial Tribunal and Fair Employment Tribunal);

(c) any other documents which may be relevant to the appeal.

(iii) After the appellant has lodged the documents (referred to above) the Court of Appeal will list the appeal for hearing not earlier than the expiration of 21 days from the date of lodgment unless an earlier date is fixed at the request of and with the written consent of both the appellant and the other parties to the appeal.

(2) Appeal by way of Case Stated to the Court of Appeal

(i) If a party, known as the appellant, who is dissatisfied on a point of law with a decision of the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal wishes the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal to state a case for the opinion of the Court of Appeal on a point of law rather than following the direct appeal procedure (set out above), the appellant must apply directly to the Court of Appeal for LEAVE for the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal to do so.

(ii) The application for LEAVE (referred to above) must:-

(a) state the grounds for the appeal to be brought by way of case stated rather than the direct appeal procedure (set out above); and

(b) be lodged together with a certified copy of the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal’s decision (obtainable free of charge from the Secretary to the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal) in the Central Office, Royal Courts of Justice, Chichester Street, Belfast, BT1 3JF within 14 days of the date of the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal’s decision.

Please note that the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal do not have power to extend the above time limits.  Those time limits can only be extended by the Court of Appeal.  Any application to extend those time limits has to be made directly to the Court of Appeal.  

The new Appeals Procedure applies to any decision of the Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal, including Rejection/Part Rejection of claims and responses, from which there is an appeal on a point of law, which has not been lodged with the Court of Appeal by 31 March 2010.



The OITFET Annual Report for 2009-2010 is now available to view on this website under Publications.



A Tribunals' Procedures booklet is now available it has also been published in Polish, Portuguese and Slovakian and can be accessed from the website "Publications" section.


A single claim form ET1(NI) for claims to the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal (in Northern Ireland) is now available for downloading – see Forms.
The guidance notes for completion of the new single claim form ET1(NI) is also available for reference/downloading – see Forms.

A single response form ET3(NI) for responses to the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal is now available for downloading – see Forms.
The guidance notes for completion of the new single response form ET3(NI) is also available for reference/downloading – see Forms


In December 2005 a customer satisfaction survey was compiled for the Office of the Industrial Tribunals and the Fair Employment Tribunal. Click on the link below to view the report detailing the main findings of this survey.

OITFET survey 2006 (pdf format 405 kb)