Parties Not Entitled to Insist on Tribunal Region

[Thanks to James Medhurst of Employment Law Advocates for providing this case summary]

The EAT (Underhill P) has handed down its decision in Faleye v UKME, which is authority for the proposition that there is no right for a claimant in the employment tribunal to have his or her case managed in the tribunal region which covers his or her place of work. Transfers between regions are not governed by the Employment Tribunal Rules and can be made for any reason that seems good to Regional Employment Judges, subject only to any question of the transfer giving rise to injustice.

Injustice can arise where the tribunal office is remote from where one or more of the parties is based but there was no injustice in this case, which concerned a transfer from London South to London Central. Moreover, the Regional Judge was entitled to take into account the special expertise of the London Central tribunal in state immunity, an issue which arose in only one of the four joined cases.