Employment Tribunal claims drop again
Amid the continuing debate on ways to reduce the burden of
Employment Tribunal (ET) claims on businesses, the recently
published Annual Tribunal Statistics (ATS) for 1 April 2011- 31
March 2012 show a drop in the number of ET claims issued.
Employment Tribunals received a total number of 186,300 claims
during 2011/12, which the ATS report notes is a 15% decrease on the
previous year.
Within that figure, single claims fell by 2% and multiple claims
(where several claims are brought usually against the same employer
arising out of the same circumstances) fell by 19%. Multiple claims
were largely to blame for a sharp increase in claims during
2009/10, but a significant decrease over the last two years has
helped to bring some normality. However the total number of claims
is still significantly higher than the levels of 2006/7 and the
years before that.
Of the complaints received in 2011/12, 31% were for unfair
dismissal, breach of contract and redundancy, 29% were concerning
the Working Time Regulations 1998 (including holiday pay, many of
which are multiple airline claims submitted every three
months) and 16% were for unauthorised deduction of wages. Unfair
dismissal, breach of contract, redundancy and unlawful deductions
claims peaked in 2009/10 (perhaps the height of the recession) and
are now slowly decreasing.
Interestingly, sex discrimination claims fell dramatically from
18,300 to 10,800, and age discrimination claims fell from 6,800 to
3,700. Other strands of discrimination remained fairly similar to
last year. One area which saw a sharp rise in claims was for
failure to inform and consult under the Transfer of Undertakings
(Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), where the
number of claims rose from 1,900 in 2010/11 to 2,600 in 2011/12,
representing an increase of nearly 40%.
During 2011/12 the number of disposals (cases which are closed
through a claim being either heard, settled, withdrawn or
dismissed) fell by 10%, meaning that not so many cases were closed.
However, ETs managed to reduce their caseload outstanding for
single claims by 7% during that period. Of the cases disposed of,
33% were conciliated by ACAS, 27% were withdrawn and only 12% were
successful at Tribunal.
These
statistics were published as part of a wider report
covering all types of tribunals (including immigration, social
security tribunals etc). A further analysis of just ET and EAT
statistics is expected to be published in September.
