Employment Tribunal statistics

The Ministry of Justice has published its annual report recording employment tribunal and appeal tribunal statistics for the year from April 2010 to March 2011.

The 2010-11 figures for tribunals show an eight per cent fall in the number of claims received when compared with the previous year, but an increase of 44 per cent on those in 2008-09. The tribunals disposed of 122,800 cases during 2010-11, nine per cent more than in 2009-10 and 33 per cent more than in 2008-09.

Of the 382,400 jurisdictional claims received in 2010-11, 30 per cent concerned the working time directive. These are mostly mass claims on behalf of airline workers which, for jurisdictional reasons, have to be re-lodged every three months and so give an impression of a significant increase when in fact there is none.

In addition to the working time claims received in 2010-11, 28 per cent concerned unfair dismissal, breach of contract and redundancy (lower than in previous years); and 19 per cent were for unauthorised deductions (Wages Act).

Although the overall number of jurisdictional claims fell between 2009-10 and 2010-11, there were increases in claims for some jurisdictions including working time directive (up 20 per cent), part-time workers Regulations (almost trebled) and age discrimination (up 32 per cent)

There were 244,000 jurisdictional claims disposed of in 2010-11, an increase of seven per cent as compared with last year – seen amongst equal pay, working time directive and unauthorised deductions in particular.

Of the 244,000 jurisdictional claims that were disposed of, 39 per cent related to unfair dismissal, breach of contract and redundancy; 16 per cent were for unauthorised deductions (Wages Act); and 11 per cent were for equal pay.

Compensation levels were as follows:

For more details, go to: www.justice.gov.uk