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Lords amendment: No. 9, in page 8, line 13, at end insert—
(3A) Where the Employment Appeal Tribunal or any industrial tribunal is satisfied, on an application under this section, that it would (but for this subsection) be required by virtue of subsection (2) above to dismiss the application, it may, instead of dismissing it, transfer the application to an industrial tribunal or, as the case may be, to the Employment Appeal Tribunal; and an application transferred under this subsection shall be proceeded with as if it had been made in accordance with that subsection at the time when it was originally made.
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§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. Patrick Nicholls)I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Paul Dean)With this it will be convenient to discuss Lords amendments Nos. 37 and 38.
§ Mr. NichollsThis is a tidying-up amendment concerning the method of applying for compensation in respect of unjustifiable discipline. Briefly, it ensures that if an individual makes his application for compensation to the employment appeal tribunal and it decides that the appeal should have been made to an industrial tribunal 252 because the union has revoked the disciplinary finding and reversed any penalty, the appeal tribunal will have the power to remit that application to an industrial tribunal. Similarly, an industrial tribunal will be empowered to remit applications incorrectly made to it to the EAT.
Without that amendment the appeal tribunal could only reject the application, leaving the individual to make a new application to an industrial tribunal. This would be unnecessarily bureaucratic and could mean that the individual would lose his right to apply for compensation if the mistake was not pointed out before the time allowed for making a compensation claim had expired. I appreciate that Opposition Members are fundamentally opposed to such a concept in any event. However, the House has a duty to ensure that the remedies provided work properly. Amendments Nos. 37 and 38 are purely technical.
§ Mr. StrangSuffice it to say that these are primarily technical amendments. While we are unhappy about the whole tenor of the Bill, we shall not detain the House any longer.
§ Question put and agreed to.