New Guidance On Employment Tribunal Applications For Interim Relief

With effect from 22 June 2026 new guidance is in place regarding applications for interim relief in the Employment Tribunals. 

The circumstances in which interim relief is available are very limited. The threshold to prove that interim relief is appropriate is a high bar to meet. 

There has been a huge uptick in interim relief applications in recent months. It is believed this is down to AI-generated applications. It used to be the case that interim relief was rarely sought and even more rarely granted. The ground has shifted. 

In certain types of unfair dismissal cases, mainly whistleblowing and trade union membership claims, a tribunal can grant an employee interim relief by ordering the employer to continue employing the employee (or paying them their salary if they are unwilling to employ them) from the date of termination until the final determination or settlement of their claim. 

Interim relief is not available in discrimination cases. 

The application means submitting the ET1 as soon as possible – within 7 days of the termination date (on or before the 7^th date after the effective date of termination) – at the same time as submitting the interim relief application. 

The new guidance which is available online here highlights the following:

• Strict procedural requirements apply.
• The tribunal cannot extend the 7-day deadline. 
• Certain trade unions claim also require a union certificate. 
• Hearings will be short and summary in nature and will now take place before a single judge sitting alone using the Employment Tribunal’s CVP video platform online.
• Tribunals may impose page and word limits to discourage the excessive documents that AI tends to generate. 
• The focus will be on only the most important documents relevant to the application.
• The legal test is whether the claimant has a pretty good chance of success. This is closer to certainty (a slam-dunk case) that it is to merely probable.

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