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Tribunal awards hit £32m

A freedom of information request from The Daily Telegraph has led to the disclosure that 2006 – 2007 saw record sums awarded by Employment Tribunals with unfair dismissal awards representing the highest category of claim.

With the number of claims also rising from 156,000 in 2004 to 238,000 in 2006 and reports indicating that they have risen further since, the rise in figures is seen as evidence of the strain felt by the Tribunals under the growing litigation culture in UK employment relationships. Commenting that the volume of claims led to employers feeling pressures to settle out of court, a spokesman for the CBI said that large numbers of the claims were weak or vexatious and a group of leading HR Directors have called for cost awards in favour of employers who successfully defend claims.  

In an unrelated development, the Deputy Information Commissioner has decided that there is a strong public interest in the identity of businesses being brought before the Tribunal being publicly available – so called ‘naming and shaming’. It would appear that the identities of those employees bringing claims are treated to a different standard, however, since there are no plans for these to be made public.