1 August 2006

25 per cent increase in Employment Tribunal claims

ACAS has published its annual report which indicates, amongst other things, a substantial increase in the number of claims made in the year 2005/06. It shows that 109,712 applications to tribunals were made, compared with 81,833 the previous year. Anne Copley, Head of Legal at BPIF, says: “This is much as predicted. Last year, the new Dispute Regulations caused a drop-off in claims whilst employees went through the internal dispute procedures. However these procedures have been the subject of much criticism from employment lawyers and HR professionals as merely adding to the litigation burden rather than producing fewer claims. In my view, this criticism has been borne out by the massive increase in claims this year” Unfair Dismissal claims are by far the greatest in number, with 35,944 cases brought last year. Working Time breaches were the next most common, at 23,907 cases. Discrimination cases, which can produce the biggest awards, only accounted for 10,642 cases in total. Anne Copley continues: “Breaches of the Working Time Regulations are still presenting issues, and the numbers of cases reflects this. It will be interesting to see what happens to the numbers of discrimination cases once Age Discrimination is added in October this year. All in all, the need for proper HR and Employment law advice has never been greater”