Step by Step Guide to Completing the Application Form ET1

Section 1. Your Details

These are straightforward. Complete as much as you can.

1.9 is important: email or post? 

Email is quicker, simpler, often more secure and reliable than post.  But Post may be better.

As the case progresses, the Tribunal will send you longer and longer, technical, detailed documents, which are very difficult to read and process on a phone. You will also be sent bundles of documents – perhaps 100 or 300 pages of pay records, rotas, timesheets and so on.  You cannot read these or process them as email attachments unless you have a laptop to read them, and access to a printer to make hard copies.  If all you have is a mobile phone, it will be really hard for you to access these crucial documents.  You have to be able to read them, to spot where they are inaccurate, to analyse them.  This is very hard to do unless you have at least a laptop; or better still, a printer. 
If that will be difficult for you, then ask for post so that you get hard, paper copies of everything. You can then copy them easily: and you can take a screen shot and send them digitally if need be.  You will need hard copies for the hearing in any event. Just make sure you give a secure postal  address, and tell the Tribunal if it changes! 

1.11  Phone hearings are often easier and quicker than having to attend a hearing.  They are used for preliminary or other short hearings; not usually for the final, main hearing.

Section 2. Respondent’s details

The Respondent is the employer – the person who has to “respond” to the claim.

2.1 and 2.2: Name and address of the Respondent:  the Employer’s name and address

First, the names and addresses on the ET1 must be the same as on the EC Certificate. (see below for a discussion of this issue.)
Identifying your employer is usually straightforward.  Their name should be on your pay slip or written contract or letter of appointment – if you have any of these! 

In law, your employer will usually be either: 

• an individual: for example Mr John Smith, Ms Pauline Brown.
• a group of people – a partnership:  farms, for example are often run as a family partnership.
• a company – P. Jones and Co, or Peter Jones Ltd.
• a public or statutory organisation: These come in a huge variety of forms: a local Council, a school (where the Academy Chain is usually the employer);  a branch of the NHS – a Hospital Trust, for example.

It is important to get the name right: you may only ever have met and dealt with Mr Singh, but if his business, where you worked, is Singh Butchers Ltd, then you must take the claim against the limited company, Singh’s Butchers Ltd, not against Mr Singh personally. Check the name of a business on the Companies House website:  you will be surprised how many very similar names there are for businesses.  If you can’t find the business name there, then it is likely the name is just a “Trading Name” for a business actually owned by an individual or a partnership: it is the individual or partner who is your employer. 

If you get the name wrong, it may not matter.  If the address is right, the employer will often send in their Response, using the correct name, and the Tribunal will simply change it; but problems can arise, particularly with employers who are trying to avoid claims.
If the employer is a company, you can give the Registered office address, available on the Companies House website, in ……     and your workplace address in  ……… .

If Identifying the Employer is difficult:

The employer is legally obliged to tell you their name and address; and if it is unclear, do the best you can: you may want to name two or three possible names and explain you do not know which was actually your employer – they never clearly told you.  The Tribunal will usually send the papers to all three, and they can then sort it out between themselves and identify the employer when they send in their defence, the Response.

If all you have is a name, and no address, taking the case further may be impossible.  If you have a name, you may be able to get the address from the Companies House website if there is a company with that name: but there are often several companies with the same name!  If the employer is deliberately concealing their identity, you have to try some detective work.  Is there someone in the office you could ask?  Or a business or supplier that trades with them?  Is there a name posted up anywhere in the office?  Do any of the other people who work there know the name? Can you get someone else to ring up and find the name for you?

The name has to be the same as the name on the Early Conciliation Certificate, or the Tribunal will reject the claim.  If you told ACAS the name was John Smith Farmers; and you then find out they are actually a limited company, John Smith Farmers Ltd, and so submit the claim to the Tribunal against the limited company, the Tribunal are likely to reject the claim: the names do not match.  You may have to go back to ACAS for another Certificate, if there is still time – the 3 month limit still applies.

Even if out of time, it might be possible to argue it was “not reasonably practicable” for you to find the right name earlier – if the name on the letter or pay slip, for example, was just John Smith Farmers – and so a late claim might be allowed. 
Alternatively, you could submit the Tribunal claim naming John Smith Farmers as the respondent, to match the EC Certificate; the Tribunal will then accept the claim and send it to John Smith Farmers. In most cases, the employers will ask the Tribunal to amend the name to their correct legal company name, John Smith Farmers Ltd, when they return their Response.

Agency Work

One common issue for refugee and migrant workers is agency work.  In most cases, your employer is the agency, who send you out to another business to work there.  If you are unsure, the simplest way to check is who is paying your wages: if it is the agency’s name on the pay slip, then they are likely to be the employer.  If in doubt, name both on the Application Form, ET1, and let them sort it out between them.

2.3 The ACAS Early Conciliation Certificate number.

The Tribunal has to reject your claim if you do not have the  number, or the names do not match.

2.5 to 2.8 Unless you are naming more than one respondent, you can ignore these.

Section 3 Multiple Claims

If you know of other employees making similar claims against your employer it is helpful to complete this section, as the Tribunal can then consider whether to join the cases so they are heard at the same time.  It may be useful to approach other employees and encourage them to take claims as well.  Facing a number of claims can put a lot of pressure on the employer to settle.

Section  5 Employment Details

Answer as clearly as you can.  On paper , if you don’t know the date, you can write in “Early 2023” or whatever.

Section 6: earnings and benefits

Fill in precise details if you have them.  Otherwise put “average” or “estimate” or “varies between”.  You can explain how the amounts and hours varied in section 8.2, Details of the Claim.

Section 7 What has happened since?

The Tribunal wants to know about new employment and pay, but not benefits.  
In 7.2 and 7.3 if the new job is casual or temporary, say so if you can.

Section 8.1 Type of Claim

Most of our clients, with claims for unpaid wages and holiday pay should tick the box by “I am Owed”, and then the 4 boxes underneath: “notice pay, holiday pay, arrears of pay (arrears means an underpayment), and other payments”.  (But read the Warning about Breach of Contract claims, check here to read more about the warning) before you tick Notice Pay, as a claim for Notice Pay is a claim for Breach of Contract.)

And tick the box for “I am making another type of claim which the Employment Tribunal can deal with”; and in the box list all of the claims you are making:

• Underpayment of National Minimum Wage
• Failure to provide written statement of terms and conditions
• Failure to produce Pay Records for inspection: section 9, 10 and 11 National Minimum Wage  Act
• Outstanding holiday pay: Working Time Regulations and unlawful deduction from wages 
• Deduction from Wages
• Failure to provide itemised pay slips
• Breach of contract – the term that says I should be paid for work done, since I have been underpaid.  (Read the Warning above before you claim for breach of contract.

If you are making other claims as well, for example discrimination or unfair dismissal, then tick those boxes as well.

8.2 Details of the Claim with dates.

This section must be completed for each claim; so list whichever claims you are making and put the details underneath.
(There is an example to help you here)

The more relevant information you can give the better.  If you simply put “Estimated wages owing : £1,450”, the Tribunal will accept the claim but are likely to order you to provide a detailed explanation and worked calculation.  It avoids delay and helps the employer realise they have to take the case seriously (which can lead to a serious offer to settle), if you set out the amounts claimed here, or below in 9.2.
You have plenty of space to set out detail; and, if you need more space, can continue in section 14; and you can put detailed calculations of the amounts claimed in the next section 9.2.

Section 9: What do you want if your Claim is successful?

9.1: only applies if you are claiming Unfair Dismissal or Discrimination

9.2  What compensation are you seeking?

Tribunals often refer to the calculation of the amount of money  you are claiming as “Schedule of Loss”, and it is helpful to put that here, as otherwise they may order you to produce one!

List each claim, and underneath set out the calculation, indicating whether it is precise or an estimate or average.  It may be sensible to put a general disclaimer at the start: for example