Tribunal Judges want Furloughed.

male45

The photo shows a brief piece of news about Tribunal Judges here in NI.
What do the members here think, should they be furloughed or ask for MR first then go to appeal?
Comments welcome.

woodbine

You have to do an MR before you can appeal.

mikehughescq

I’m assuming this was an attempt at humour? I’m genuinely not clear. 

Fee pays judges make £400 ish per session but a session can be a large number of appeals and they have to prepare those appeals in their own time with no payment. A day of appeals may involve a day of preparation. It’s hardly a massive amount of money spread over 2 days and many can go months with no work at all and no alternative employment in law in case there are conflicts of interest. The amount of writing involved in a day of appeals is the equivalent of doing 2 3 hour exams. 

If the rules are the same as they are in the UK then the judges are appointed and treated as being neither employed nor self-employed. Rock and a hard place effectively. At present all cases are being previewed by salaried judges and sajaeyed judges are also doing some phone hearings so fee paid judges start from a weak position and currently have slim pickings in many cases.

male45

@mikehughescq
Hi Mike its a genuine piece of news in a local paper here.
Question about should they seek to ask for a MR and appeal is genuine...do they have rights or not

mikehughescq

Fair enough. 

The problem is their employment status rather than a social security issue. So, MR etc. not relevant. They’d need to start with a grievance and then pursue to an employment tribunal in order to establish whether they were employed or self-employed. 

Even if they were employed they still can’t compel the employer to furlough them and I don’t see how it could possibly be calculated as each one of them earns something different from week to week. 

Most likely they’d be declared self-employed and be expected to rely on the SEISS. 

male45

@mikehughescq
Thanks mike