Research co-authored by Selwyn Fellow Sarah Fraser Butlin KC is contributing to the national conversation about how to change England and Wales's Employment Tribunal system. 

Now cases are so backlogged that unfair dismissal claimants can wait up to five years for a hearing.

Sarah, a practising barrister, worked with Professor Catherine Barnard of Trinity Cambridge and Maayan Menashe of City St George's University of London. Their two-year empirical study was funded by the Employment Lawyers Association. Recommendations from the research were published in May and have been covered by BBC News, among others.

Sarah said that single outstanding cases in the Employment Tribunal rose by 15,000 to 58,000 in the past year alone, with the total backlog now standing at nearly 72,000. 

And changes to the Employment Rights Act 2025 are expected to add further pressure.

The research takes a fresh approach to the problem. It argues that workplace disputes are currently handled within too narrow a legal frame. Drawing on how family law manages the breakdown of relationships, it proposes a new model for employment dispute resolution. Key recommendations include a new dispute resolution body to reduce the number of cases reaching court, a tiered system routing simpler claims to legal officers rather than judges, and AI tools designed to evaluate claims rather than expand them.

Reimagining Employment Dispute Resolution and Enforcement is available under an open access licence.