Recommendations

As well as a power to award compensation, tribunals have a wide power to make recommendations. Recommendations have included requiring a letter to be sent to all parents putting the record straight about a victimised teacher’s performance (Governing Body of St Andrews Catholic School v Blundell UKEAT/0330/09), that employees undergo equality training, that the tribunal’s judgment is widely circulated and that a qualified HR professional is engaged to review the employer’s procedures (Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle v Delambre [2011] UKEAT/0563/10/RN).

Failure to follow a recommendation will be taken into account by the tribunal in any future discrimination cases involving the employer, and may lead to an increase in compensation.

In October 2012, the government announced a plan to repeal the tribunal’s power to make recommendations under section 124 of the EA 10 that benefit the whole workforce even where the claimant decides not to remain with the employer. The repeal will be included in a forthcoming Deregulation Bill.