The Tribunal Service has released its annual statistics report for 2009/10. The report covers the period 1 April 09 to 31 March 2010. The key findings indicate a sharp increase in the number of claims being brought to the Tribunal, believed, at least in part, to be a consequence of the economic recession.
The Employment Tribunal processed 236,100 receipts in 2009/10 which equated to an increase of 56% on the previous year. A consequence of this was that, despite an increase in the number of claims being entirely disposed of by the Employment Tribunal to 22% on previous years, it still failed to maintain a pace comparable to the speed in which claims were being raised.
This increased workload meant that only 65% of cases lodged with the Employment Tribunal were disposed of within the target time, set at 26 weeks. This figure is down from 74% in the previous year.
The Report also recorded the jurisdictions in each claim and found: 95,200 claims were raised in relation to the Working Time Regulations (the much publicised airline cases have seen 10,600 new cases submitted every 3 months) and 75,000 applications were raised for unauthorised deduction of wages. There were 126,300 unfair dismissal, breach of contract and redundancy claims. This type of claim has risen 17% on previous years and the report suggests that this is likely to be a result of the economic depression.
The figures indicate that there is a greater willingness among employees to raise claims against their employer and with the economic cloud scheduled to cast a shadow over us for some time yet, it can be expected that these figures will continue to increase. In addition, the slower progress of claims through Tribunals will result in the defence of such claims becoming much lengthier and more expensive. This demonstrates the tremendous importance of employers having in place clear and accessible policies, particularly in relation to redundancy.
The full report can be found at: Tribunal Annual Statistics for 2009/10
Disclaimer
The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Recipients should not act on the basis of the information in this e-update without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.