56% increase in tribunal claims reported

The Tribunals Service has published its annual statistics for the period from 1st April 2009 to 31st March 2010.  The figures reveal that the total number of claims submitted to the Employment Tribunnals has increased 56% from the previous year.

Key facts and statistics are as follows:

1. The total number of claims has gone up by 56%, with a large part of this increase being accounted for by the rise in multiple claims (up 90% from the previous year).  Single claims are up by 14% on the previous year, an increase which is thought to be attributable to the recession.

2. The most common type of claim are working time cases (95,000) followed by unauthorised deduction from wages (75,000), then unfair dismissal (57,400) and breach of contract (42,400).  The number of unfair dismissal claims went up by 10% over the last year, a lower increase than expected.

3.  Surprisingly, claims for failure to inform and consult on redundancy actually went down - by 65% on the previous year.  Claims for redundancy payments themselves went up from 10,800 last year to 19,000 this year.

4. Of all the claims which the Tribunals Service disposed of, 32% were withdrawn, 31% settled through ACAS and nearly 13% were successful at tribunal.

5. The rate at which employment tribunals have been able to dispose of cases has not kept pace with the increase in the number of claims, resulting in an increased backlog of cases.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Employment Tribunal System National User Group shows that tribunals are taking different approaches to tackling the increased workload.  Evening sittings have been piloted at Glasgow; and these have been thought to have been useful.  Generally, there is resistance in Scotland to suggestions that tribunals should 'float' cases more regularly or use witness statements, both of which are common south of the border.

Notes:

1. The firm can help employers to defend themselves against employment tribunal claims; and also prevent employee disputes from escalating into a claim.  For details on this or for help in completing an ET3, please contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

2. The increasing volume of tribunal claims and the length of time it is taking tribunal claims to resolve underline the importance of considering other methods of dispute resolution, including mediation.  This is the subject of the firm's next lunch bite in September 2010: 'Mediation: What's it all about?'