Trade union discrimination

Q: What are the current ball park figures for compensation for injury to feelings in trade union discrimination cases?

A: Injury to feelings awards in trade union discrimination cases should follow the same guidelines as those for other types of discrimination. The level of award will depend on the length of time the discrimination lasted and the seriousness of it.

This was confirmed by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in the case of London Borough of Hackney v Adams EAT/1318/01 — in which it upheld an injury to feelings award of £5,000 to an employee who had had an offer of promotion withdrawn because of her trade union activities as a shop steward.

The leading case for determining levels of injury to feelings is Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2002] EWCA Civ 1871. This puts injury to feelings awards into three “bands” according to the seriousness, ranging from £500 to £25,000 (paragraph 65 of the Court of Appeal’s judgment).

In a later case, the EAT said these levels should be uprated to take account of inflation (Miles v Gilbank EAT/0396/05).