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Sharp fall in tribunal claims
Employment tribunal claims have fallen sharply following the introduction of tribunal fees, official figures suggest.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published provisional statistics showing the number of employment tribunal claims issued between the launch of tribunal fees on 29 July 2013 and September 2013.
Claims peaked in July at 7,307, plummeting to around 1,000 in September. The MoJ cautions that these figures do not include claims issued in August or September for which payment of a fee or a decision about fee remission is still outstanding. Even so, and as predicted by campaigners, the underlying trend revealed by these statistics is a massive collapse in the number of individual claimants.
The judgment in the challenge to tribunal fees by the UNISON public services union (see Labour Research, August 2013, page 21) is likely to be published this month.
As Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary, said: “The latest government statistics show a significant drop in the number of individual claims being taken to employment tribunals, which is precisely why UNISON is challenging these unfair fees.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has intervened in UNISON’s tribunal fees challenge, reflecting the case’s importance and the particularly troubling disproportionate impact of tribunal fees on low-paid women, who are more likely to work part time.
The amount of the tribunal fee is fixed, regardless of the value of the claim.