Compensation: - the law

Compensation for claims of discrimination and whistleblowing includes an award for “injury to feelings” that will be assessed by the employment tribunal.

An award for compensation for injury to feelings and psychiatric injury is assessed according to the following bands. These were set in the case of Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2003] IRLR 102 and are now uprated annually.

The current bands, which apply to tribunal claims brought in England, Wales and Scotland on or after 6 April 2021, are:

• Lower band: £900 to £9,100 (less serious cases)

• Middle band: £9,100 to £27,400 (cases that do not merit an award in the upper band)

• Upper band: £27,400 to £45,600 (for the most serious cases), with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £45,600.

Tribunals can also make an award for “aggravated damages” where an employer has behaved in an exceptionally upsetting, vindictive or unthinking manner.

Recent cases

• If a tribunal is to award lifetime loss of earnings it must carry out a proper assessment of causation (case 4).