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Information needed before a claim can be accepted

Use the notes below to help you fill in the form. Your claim won’t be accepted unless you have:

• used the correct form – ET1
  
• included your name and address
  
• included the name and address of the person you are making the claim against – the respondent(s)
  
• included the details of your complaint

1 Your details

Remember, you only have to give details marked with a * (as detailed on the form).

1.1 Tick the relevant box to show if you want to be referred to as Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms. If none of these is correct, put your title (for example, Doctor) in the space after ‘Other’.

1.2* Give your first name or names.

1.3* Give your surname or family name in CAPITAL letters.

1.4 Give your date of birth in day/month/year format (for example 25/02/2024) and tick the relevant box to tell the Employment Tribunal if you are male or female.

1.5* Give your full address, including house number, street, town or city, county and postcode.

1.6 Please give your telephone number(s) (including the full dialling code for a landline) where you can be contacted during normal working hours.

1.7 Tick the relevant box to say how you would prefer to be contacted in future. If you want to communicate by email please check your emails every day. The Employment Tribunal will usually try to use email if you want it to. However, this may not always be possible as some documents need to be signed by an Employment Judge.

2 Respondent's details

If your claim is accepted, a copy of your claim will be sent to the organisation you are complaining about (the respondent). This is so that they can prepare a response to your complaint. It is important that you tell the Tribunal the correct identity of the respondent to avoid any delay in processing your claim. You should be able to identify this by looking at the letter that offered you your job, your contract of employment or your wage slip.

2.1* Complaints may be against a single respondent, or a number of respondents.
If you are claiming discrimination, you may be able to claim against more than one respondent. For instance, the employer and any person for whom the employer is responsible for. If you want to complain about a person (or people) put the name of the organisation in this box. Then put the name and address of the person (or people) as additional respondent(s) in Section 11.

2.2* Give the respondent’s full address, postcode and telephone number.

2.3* Give the full address and postcode of the place where you worked, or applied to work, if this is different from the respondent’s address you gave at 2.2. If you worked from home please enter your home details, as your home address and postcode will be treated as your workplace.

Please use Section 11 of the form to give details of additional respondents.

3 Employment details

3.1 If your complaint is against your employer or ex-employer, please give the date when your employment started and, if it applies, the date when it ended or will end. Use day/month/year format (for example 23/03/2023). Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not your employment is continuing.

Sometimes people have the legal employment status of 'worker' rather than 'employee'. Follow the link below to learn more.

3.2 Please give your job title and say what job you do or did for your employer.

• Find out more about whether you’re a ‘worker’ or an ‘employee’

4 Earnings and benefits

4.1 Please give the basic number of hours you work or worked each week – do not include overtime even if you work or worked it regularly.

4.2 Give details of your basic pay, before tax and any deductions and not including any overtime payments. Then give details of your normal take-home pay (this is your pay after tax, National Insurance and any other deductions but including overtime, commissions and bonuses). Your payslip should show these amounts. Please tick the relevant box to show if this is for an hour, a week, a month or a year.

4.3 If your employment has ended, please tick the appropriate box to say if you either worked or were paid for a period of notice. If so, please provide details of how long you worked or were paid for.

4.4 Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not you were in your employer’s pension scheme.

Please answer 4.5 to 4.9 if you were unfairly dismissed.

4.5 Give details of any other benefits you received from your employer.
Examples might include a company car or medical insurance. Please describe what kind of benefit you received and give an idea of how much it was worth.

4.6 Please tick the appropriate box to say whether or not you have got another job since leaving your employment. If you have not, please now go straight to section 4.9.

4.7 If you have got another job, please say when you started (or will start) work. Please say if the job is permanent or temporary. If it is temporary, give the likely date it is due to end (if you know it).

4.8 Please provide details of the amount you are earning (or will earn) each week, month or year in your new job.

4.9 Please tick the appropriate box to say what you want if your claim is successful.

5 Your claim

5.1* Please tick the appropriate box or boxes to say what you are complaining about.

5.2* Please give the background and details of your complaints.

Unfair dismissal

If your claim or part of it is about:

• being unfairly dismissed by the respondent
  
• constructive dismissal (you are claiming your employer’s actions were such that they made you resign from your job)

Then use the box provided to explain the background to the dismissal and give any other information you think would be helpful.

If you disagree with the reason the respondent gave for dismissing you, please say what you think the real reason was. You should describe the events which led up to your dismissal and describe how the dismissal took place, including dates, times and the people involved. If you are claiming constructive dismissal, please explain in detail the circumstances surrounding this.

Discrimination

Discrimination can take place on the grounds of sex (including complaints regarding equal pay and about pregnancy and maternity issues). It can also take place on grounds of race, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age or disability (often called 'the protected grounds'). Discrimination laws cover all areas of employment including recruitment, training, promotion and dismissal. They also cover harassment related to one of the 'protected grounds' and victimisation which occurs because you have:

• made a claim of discrimination or helped someone else to do so
  
• given evidence in such a case
  
• raised with your employer the fact that you consider that discrimination may have occurred

Events that happen after you have left employment can also be covered by discrimination laws. The Equality and Human Rights Commission can provide a questionnaire to help you decide whether or not to start proceedings. It can also help you prepare your case in the most effective way. This applies to cases of sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and disability discrimination.

In the box please describe the incidents which you believe amounted to discrimination, the dates of these incidents and the people who were involved. Explain in what way you believe you were discriminated against. If you are complaining about discrimination when you applied for a job, please say what job you were applying for. If you are complaining about more than one type of discrimination, please provide separate details of the act (or acts) of discrimination. You should describe how you have been affected by the events you are complaining about.

Redundancy payment

If you are claiming a redundancy payment please say whether you have asked your employer for payment. If so, please give the date in day/month/year format (for example 25/10/08). Please say if you have applied to a Redundancy Payments Office (RPO) for payment. If you have applied to the RPO please say whether your claim has been rejected, and if so, the date shown on the rejection letter.

Other payments you are owed

You should say how much you are claiming for if you are complaining about:

• unpaid wages
• unpaid holiday pay
• payment for a period of notice
• other unpaid amounts, such as expenses, commissions and bonuses

Please explain why you believe you are entitled to this payment, setting out full details such as the period the payment covers and the rate of pay. If you have specified an amount, please say how you worked this out.

You need to show more detail if you are claiming for more than one type of payment. Please give the amounts you are claiming for each type of payment and explain how you worked out each amount.

Other complaints

Please state what your complaint is and explain the events leading up to your claim, including any relevant dates. If there is not enough space for your answer, please continue on a separate sheet and attach it to this form.

• Find out more about discrimination on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website Opens new window

6 What compensation or remedy are you seeking?

6.1 It would be helpful if you would state what you are seeking from the respondent if your claim is successful (for example, amount of compensation).

7 Other information

7.1 Please do not send a covering letter with your claim form. You should provide any extra information that you want to here. For example, you may want to give an explanation of why your claim is out of time. Explain whether you raised the issue with the respondent and, if so, if any action was taken.

If there is not enough space, please continue on a separate sheet and attach it to this form. If you are providing information on separate sheets for a number of questions, please say here how many sheets in total you have attached to the form.

8 Your representative

You only need to fill in this section if you have appointed a person to act on your behalf, that is, a representative. If you appoint a representative the Tribunal will deal directly with them, not with you. Please do not give the name of a representative unless they have agreed to act for you. Do not give the name of a person or organisation who is only giving you advice on filling in this form.

8.1 If you know the name of the person representing you, give it here. If you don’t know it, leave this section blank.

8.2 Give the full name of the representative’s organisation (for example, the union, firm of solicitors or Citizens Advice Bureau).

8.3 Give the full address and postcode of the representative’s organisation.

8.4 Give the representative’s phone number including the full dialling code.

8.5 Give the reference number your representative has given to your case (if you know it).

8.6 Tick the appropriate box to say how they would prefer to be contacted in future (if you know) and give the email address if appropriate. Please do not include an email address unless the representative checks their emails every day.

9 Disability

9.1 Please tick ‘Yes’ if you consider that you have a disability. Please say what this disability is and give details of any help you may need from tribunal staff. Examples of the help that can be provided include converting documents to Braille or larger print, providing information on disc and paying for sign language interpreters.

10 Multiple claims

10.1 If you are aware that your claim is one of a number of claims arising from the same or similar circumstances against the same respondent, please tick ‘Yes’ here. This will help Tribunal staff to process these claims efficiently.

Details of additional respondents

11.1 Use the boxes to give details of extra respondents.

Equal Opportunities Monitoring form

You are not obliged to fill in this section but, if you do so, it would enable the Tribunal to monitor its processes and help ensure that it provides fair treatment for all. The information you give will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not form part of your case. It may be used for general research purposes where you will not be identified.

Data Protection Act 1998

The Tribunal will send a copy of this form to the respondent(s) and Acas. It will put the information you provide on this form onto a computer. This helps it to monitor progress and produce statistics. Information provided on this form is passed to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to assist research into the use and effectiveness of employment tribunals.

Help and advice

If you need help completing your claim form you can call the Employment Tribunals public enquiry line on 08457 959 775. Note that they won't be able to give you legal advice.

Useful contacts

• Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service)

• Citizens Advice Bureau

• Jobcentre Plus

• businesslink.gov.uk Opens new window

• More useful contacts