A fee for bringing an employment tribunal will be charged for the first time from April 2013, Chancellor George Osborne has announced. There will be a refund for any individual who wins their case. The amount that will be charged and how it should be paid will be subject to consultation starting by the end of November.

There is currently no fee for an applicant who wants to make an employment tribunal claim. The low-paid, or those without an income, may also have the fee waived or reduced at the start of the process, under the new scheme. "We are ending the one way bet against small businesses," Mr Osborne told the Conservative conference in Manchester.

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The chancellor also confirmed that, from April 2011, the qualifying period for a claim for unfair dismissal will be that the individual must have been in the job for at least two years. At present they only need to have been working for one year....Read more here---> BBC News - New fees for tribunals from 2013, says George Osborne