1. TRIBUNAL STATISTICS

The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice on employment tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) claims covering the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 reveal troubling trends. Ahead of the introduction of fees in late 2013 (between £160 and £250 to lodge a tribunal claim and £230 and £950 to proceed to a hearing) the volume of tribunal activity is already sharply down.

The total number of claims received and accepted by the tribunal dropped by approximately 16% from 382,400 in 2010-11 to 321,800 in 2011-12.

The number of complaints about breaches of the 2000 Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations dropped by 52% from 1,600 to 770. The number of age discrimination claims dropped over 45%, from 6,800 down to 3,700. There was a 41% drop in the number of sex discrimination claims, from 18,300 to 10,800. And the number of claims of unauthorised deductions from wages was down by 28%, from 71,300 to 51,200.

There were some claims that did increase. The number of complaints about failing to inform and consult about a redundancy situation rose by 8%, from 7,400 to 8,000. The number of disability discrimination claims rose by 7%, from 7,200 to 7,700. And the number of religion or belief discrimination claims also rose by 7%, from 880 to 940 claims. The largest increase involved claims about failing to inform and consult about a transfer of an undertaking which rose by 37%, from 1,900 to 2,600 claims.

The situation in relation to rejecting claims at the initial sift stage (initial consideration of cases) was static. Although the number of claims rejected by the tribunal at the sift was again low, this is likely to rise next year. This is because rejecting weaker claims at the sift stage is something the government wants to encourage.

The most numerous types of cases brought were about breaches of the Working Time Directive (29% of the total number of claims), unauthorised deductions from wages claims (16%), unfair dismissal claims (14%), breach of contract claims (10%) and equal pay claims (9%).

Each of the other types of claims represented less than 5% of the total number of claims. However, if combined, the different types of discrimination claims — sex, disability, race, age, pregnancy religion/belief, sexual orientation, and part-time worker discrimination — amounted to 10% of the total number brought. Also, complaints related to redundancy other than dismissal, specifically, failure to inform and consult and failure to pay redundancy — amounted to 7% of the total.

Of those cases that made it to a contested main hearing, for most types of claims, employees were less successful than employers. Specifically, at a hearing, employees bringing sex discrimination proceedings were twice as likely to lose their case than to win it; employees with race or religion/belief discrimination claims were between five and six times more likely to lose; employees with disability or sexual orientation claims were between three and four times more likely to lose; and employees bringing age discrimination claims were eight times more likely to lose their case than win at a hearing.

However, employees with unlawful deductions from wages or breach of contract claims were over twice as likely to win; those with working time claims were almost three times as likely to win; and those with unpaid redundancy pay claims were over four times as likely to win at a hearing.

In relation to unfair dismissal, the outcome for parties following the main hearing was more evenly balanced with 4,800 unsuccessful claims at this point compared to 5,100 successful claims. However, the bare statistics mask a much worse situation for employees.

In 2,600 of the 5,100 “successful” cases, no compensation was awarded and this was not due to the tribunal ordering re-instatement or re-engagement. Of the 5,100 successful unfair dismissal claims, reinstatement or re-engagement was ordered in just five cases. Re-instatement or re-engagement was the originally intended remedy following a successful unfair dismissal claim but these figures show that it occurs in less than 0.1% of claims which succeed at a main hearing.

Another shocking statistic covers representation at the tribunal which has almost halved this year. The number of claimants represented by trade unions is down to 5,500 from 10,000 and by lawyers down to 72,600 from 142,700.