Employment Tribunal Claims at an All Time High

 The Tribunals Service published its annual statistics for 2009/2010, which showed that Employment Tribunal claims increased 56% from 2008/2009, the highest ever level of claims.   The most common types of claim were for unfair dismissal, unauthorised deductions from wages and breach of contract.    There was a 17% increase in the number of claims associated with unfair dismissal, breach of contract and redundancy, which is likely to have been caused by the economic recession.   The Tribunals have not been able to keep pace with the increase in the number of claims and more than 400,000 claims remained outstanding as at 31^st March 2010.    Further, Tribunals only managed to hold a first hearing within 26 weeks of receiving a claim in 65% of cases (a 9% decrease from the previous year).

As businesses continue to take cost-cutting measures, the number of claims could rise further in 2010/2011.   Employees seem more willing to bring claims, especially if they face a long period of unemployment.    It is, therefore extremely important that employers ensure they have a fair reason to dismiss and that they carry out redundancy and reorganisation exercises in a manner that will avoid claims.   

Colman Coyle have an experienced team of employment lawyers who can help businesses through redundancy, re-organisation and change of contractual terms exercises.  Please contact our employment department on 020 7354 3000 or email employment@colmancoyle.com

Author: Sandra Martins

Date: July 2010