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Number of employment tribunals rises by 56%
Mon 06 Sep 2010
Britain's faltering economy has fuelled an increase in the number of employment tribunals over the last year, the government has revealed.
According to figures from the Ministry of Justice, there was a 56 per cent rise in the amount of accepted claims between April 1st 2009 and March 31st 2010.
The increase to 236,100 cases was fuelled partly by a surge in the number of jurisdictional claims linked with unfair dismissal, redundancy and breach of contract.
Statistics showed that this was 62 per cent higher than the figure recorded two years earlier, which the government attributed to the subsequent economic downturn.
The data also indicated increases in the number of cases relating to disability discrimination since 2008-2009, as well as more issues involving age, sexual orientation, religion and race.
This comes before the Equality Act 2010, which includes a raft of measures designed to tackle discrimination in the workplace, comes into force early next month.
David von Hagen, employment law partner at Winckworth Sherwood solicitors, commented: "Broadly speaking there has been a year-on-year increase so these figures do not come as a complete surprise.
"The economic downturn may have played some part in the increase, but these figures have to be seen in the context of the number of claims that settle, and the number of 'tactical claims' brought, where proceedings are brought as a tactic to settle.
"It is only a small percentage of these accepted claims that go to a full Tribunal hearing."
