CODE: Green
On 12 September the Government published employment tribunal statistics for the year 2012/2013 and for the first quarter of 2013/2014.
The headlines are as follows:
• The number of employment tribunal claims received in the first quarter of 2014 was 44,335, a 10% increase on the same period last year.
• On average a claim involving a single Claimant takes around 6 months to complete. For cases involving multiple Claimants the average is almost three years.
• Median average awards of compensation in 2012/2013 were:
o For unfair dismissal – £4832
o Race discrimination – £4,831
o Sex discrimination – £5,900
o Disability discrimination – £7,536
The statistics appear to show no significant fluctuations in the number of claims compared to previous years. Median average awards continue to remain low despite the challenging job market conditions that existed in 2012, which might have seen larger awards for lost earnings. That being said, mean averages were significantly higher reflecting the fact that, in some cases, the tribunals were still awarding large sums of compensation.
The statistics do not yet tell us anything about the impact that tribunal fees introduced on 29 July 2013 have had on the number of claims issued. The initial rumours are that fees have had a significant impact in reducing the number of cases. Do keep an eye on our blog for confirmation of whether those rumours are true sometime in the beginning of 2014 when the Oct-Dec 2013 stats are published.
If you have any employment tribunal queries please contact Morrisons Solicitors’ employment team, call 01737 854500 or email [email protected].