Tribunal claims soar in the recession

The number of claims accepted by employment tribunals has increased by 56% to the highest level on record, according to new figures.

The Tribunals Service’s annual statistics reveal the number of claims accepted by employment tribunals in 2009-10 increased to 236,100, up from 151,000 the previous year.

The number of claims associated with redundancy pay also shot up by 76% from 10,800 in 2008-09 to 19,000. Unfair dismissal claims also increased by 9% to 57,400.

Meanwhile, age discrimination claims rose by 37% to 5,200. And claims associated with the Working Time Directive also increased sharply by 297% to 95,200 in 2009-10.

But equal pay employment tribunal claims dropped during 2009-10 by 18% to 37,400.

The number of disposals — cases withdrawn, settled, dismissed, or decided at a final hearing — by employment tribunals increased by 22%, but this did not keep pace with claim receipts as more than 400,000 claims remained outstanding.

Susie Munro, an employment law editor at XpertHR, said the overall rise in employment tribunal claims could be explained by the recession and a significant increase in multiple claims submitted last year — which involve a number of individuals bringing claims relating to the same incident, such as a TUPE decision.

www.personneltoday.com/articles/2010/07/07/56191/tribunal-claims-increase-by-56-to-the-highest-level-ever-recorded.html

www.tribunals.gov.uk/Tribunals/Documents/Publications/TS_AnnualStatisticsReport0910.pdf