Employment Advice Need and Provision at the Dungannon Citizens Advice Bureau

Researchers from the universities of Bristol and Strathclyde have been carrying out research to find out about the barriers to justice experienced by people who try to resolve employment problems. The study, funded by the European Research Council, focuses particularly on people who cannot afford to seek help from a solicitor. As such, we have been working with Citizens Advice to access study participants. The South Tyrone and Mid Ulster Citizens Advice Bureau is one of seven bureaux participating in the research. The bureau operates from 2 main offices, known as Dungannon CAB and Cookstown CAB and provides services across the Dungannon, Cookstown and Magherafelt Council areas

Citizens Advice Bureaux Clients and Advisers' Perceptions of Acas

The Advice, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) provides free and impartial information and advice to employers and workers on all aspects of workplace relations and employment law. It also provides an individual conciliation service aimed at helping both parties to an employment dispute reach a mutually acceptable solution without having to seek recourse to an Employment Tribunal. This report describes how individuals with workplace disputes who seek advice from Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx) and the CAB advisers from whom they seek advice experience their interactions with Acas across a range of different services. The data presented was drawn from six research sites: three CABx in Scotland and three in England. Study participants comprise 134 workers, of whom 67 reported some interaction with Acas, as well as at least one adviser from each CAB bureau

Enforcement of Employment Tribunal Awards

This report examines the experiences of Employment Tribunal (ET) claimants after an ET award was made in their favour. A workers’ success in the ET is by no means the end of the story when it comes to achieving justice for a wrongdoing against them in the workplace. Enforcing an award made by an ET can itself be highly problematic . 1 The data presented in this report were collected as part of a European Research Council funded project entitled Citizens Advice Bureaux and Employment Disputes . 2 The overall aim of this project was to understand workers’ experiences as they attempted to resolve problems faced at work, including identifying potential barriers to justice. Our particular focus was on workers who could not easily afford the services of a solicitor. As such, participants were recruited through Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx) who are a key provider of employment advice to this group. We tracked the experiences of workers as they sought to resolve their workplace disputes – from their initial advice sessions with CABx to the closure ( or in some cases abandonment ) of the problem. The vast majority of our participants who pursued their claims in the ET did so prior to the introduction of fees on 29 July 2013. The report focuses on the paths taken and overall outcomes for participants who were successful with their claim in the ET. It begins by providing a brief overview of the system for enforcing ET awards. The key findings from our participant group are then presented in three sections : firstly, a summary of the outcomes of our participants; secondly, experiences of those who took formal action to enforce their ET awards; and, thirdly, experiences of those who did not take formal action to enforce their ET awards. Finally, detailed vignettes elaborating on and contextualising these findings in relation to specific individuals are presented

Employment Tribunal Fees : Effect on clients of Citizens Advice Bureaux

This report considers the effect the introduction of Employment Tribunal (ET) fees has had on workers who seek advice from Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx) for their employment problems. The data presented are a subsample of 14 workers about whom information was collected as part of a European Research Council funded project entitled Citizens Advice Bureaux and Employment Disputes . The overall aim of this project was to understand workers’ experiences as they attempted to resolve problems faced at work, including identifyi ng barriers to justice

Citizens Advice Bureaux and Employment Disputes Interim Report

This report details interim findings from the project Citizens Advice Bureaux and Employment Disputes. It comes at a time when drastic changes are occurring to employment conditions, rights and regulation in the UK, yet at the same time funding for employment related advice is being reduced. These processes are taking place under the broader political and policy ‘austerity’ programme of the Coalition Government and are fundamentally impacting upon people’s ‘access to justice’. The project is funded by the European Research Council and is part of a broader programme of study into third sector advice agencies and public conceptualisations of legal issues.The aim of the project is to examine how CAB clients pursue their employment disputes following their first interaction with the CAB and explores barriers to justice. Three specific questions are addressed: how the relationship between the CAB and their client shapes the approach to the employment disputes; how the different levels of support that are offered by CABx affect how clients identify, assert and defend their rights; and how advice work carried out across CABx enable the organisation and individual bureaux to campaign for social policy change in the field of workers’ rights