The government has just published its 2013 survey of employment tribunal applications in which half of all claimants said they would be influenced by the introduction of a claim fee of £250.
So the government can hardly have been surprised by the latest tribunal statistics which show that the number of single claims received in January to March 2014 was 59 per cent fewer than in the same period of 2013 (tribunal fees were introduced in July 2013).
The 2013 survey also showed that the outcome of tribunal claims varied significantly by jurisdiction. For instance, redundancy cases were less likely than other types of claims to result in settlements while Wages Act cases were more likely to be settled privately.
Claimants who were a member of a trade union or staff association at the time they brought the application were less likely to end up going to a hearing. In 90 per cent of cases that went to tribunal and where the tribunal decided in favour of the claimant, the median value awarded was £3,000.
Responses varied significantly between employers and employees about whether claimants received the payment of their award, with 63 per cent of claimants reporting that they had received it, compared with 87 per cent of employers who said that the money had been paid. In over half of cases where the claimant was awarded a sum of money by the employment tribunal, it was paid in four weeks or less. Claimants used enforcement channels, for example an application to a local country court for an enforcement order, in 18 per cent of cases.
Three in four claimants (77 per cent) thought that it was worthwhile bringing the case against their employer, while one in five did not. Claimants were more likely to think it was worthwhile if the case was privately settled (88 per cent) or settled by Acas (87 per cent).
Just under three fifths of claimants were men; almost a fifth had a long-standing illness or disability; and 82 per cent were white.
Iain Birrell of Thompsons Solicitors commented: “Although interesting, the reader must be cautious. The survey occurred before many of the main employment law changes took effect, including fees. The responses are therefore a snapshot of views of the old system and not all of it is relevant to the new. Understandably it only deals with people who are in the system and not those excluded from justice by the changes, which the official statistics suggest number into the thousands.”
The survey data was collected during telephone interviews of 1,988 claimants and 2,011 employers, based on single claims that were disposed of between 3 January 2012 and 4 January 2013.
To access the full survey, go to: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/316704/bis-14-708-survey-of-employment-tribunal-applications-2013.pdf
To access the latest quarterly statistics, go to: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2014