Numbers of employment tribunal claims rise
Figures recently released by the Employment Tribunals Service indicate a 15% rise in the number of claims brought to the Employment Tribunal in the year to March 2007 – a significant increase on the year before. The total number of cases brought totalled 132,577, with the number of cases being disposed of also rising by 19% to 102,597. There was also a sharp increase in the number of multiple cases (26%) with these actions making up 60% of all cases received.
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Discrimination cases on the increase
An examination of the statistics shows that although there has been an increase in the number of discrimination claims brought, the largest increase – with a massive 155% rise - is in equal pay claims. The number of sex discrimination claims has also doubled and it may be that these figures are linked with sex discrimination claims being brought with equal pay claims.
There has also been an – albeit smaller – increase in the numbers of disability discrimination cases and those claiming discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or religion or belief. However, the numbers of cases brought on the latter two grounds are still far short of the numbers of cases anticipated by the Government when the relevant Regulations were brought in to force nearly 4 years ago.
The age discrimination legislation introduced in October 2006 has started to impact too with nearly 1000 cases being brought in the 6 month period from commencement to March 2007. Again, this is far short of the many thousands which were predicted.
However, the success rates for discrimination cases remain low with often no more than 2% or 3% of all cases being decided in favour of the claimant at a full hearing.
Unfair dismissal still on top
Despite the huge rise in sex discrimination and equal pay cases, unfair dismissal is still the most common type of action with 44,491 claims in the period. Unauthorised deductions and breach of contract also continue to occupy a considerable percentage share (26%). Curiously enough, the amount of working time directive cases dropped sharply after an extraordinary increase in 2005/2006 from the previous year. It is dangerous to read too much in to this but perhaps employers are more mindful of their responsibilities under the Working Time Regulations following the previous upsurge in cases.
The success rates of all unfair dismissal cases brought remains higher than in discrimination cases with 10% of all such cases proving successful after a tribunal hearing. Of the claims that met with success it seems that claims for redundancy pay have the greatest success rate at 31%. Overall however, a far larger proportion of all unfair dismissal cases (35%) were settled by way of an ACAS conciliated settlement.
Compensation awards
The largest awards of compensation were made in cases of disability discrimination where future loss can increase the value of the claim. The average awards for the different types of cases were:
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Disability discrimination: £15,059
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Race disrimination: £14,049
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Sex discrimination: £10,052
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Unfair dismissal: £8,000.
These awards seem relatively modest given that there is no limit to the amount of compensation that can be awarded in discrimination cases and the fact that the current maximum compensation that can be awarded in an unfair dismissal claim is £60,600.
Costs
The figures show that far more awards of expenses have been made against Claimants than against Respondents. Although the average awards of expenses was quite low (just over £2000) awards of costs up to the current maximum were awarded on a number of occasions and, in a couple of cases, costs in excess of the maximum were agreed between the parties and confirmed by the Tribunals.
Conclusion
The fact that the number of unfair dismissal claims are still on the increase would seem to provide further evidence that, notwithstanding the Government's stated aim of bringing down the number of claims with its introduction of the 2004 Dispute Resolution Regulations, it has failed to achieve this.
Whilst the huge number of equal pay claims have impacted significantly on the public sector, for the private sector, the increase in the number of cases brought overall is relatively small.
Further information
For further information, please contact jill.bell@andersonstrathern.co.uk 0131 625 7246, deborah.solley@andersonstrathern.co.uk 0131 270 7946, or your usual contact in the Employment Team.
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