The Employment Tribunal has released its provisional statistics for the quarter of April to June 2018.
Unsurprisingly following the removal of tribunal fees last year the number of claims that have been lodged at a tribunal has increased significantly, by 165% when compared to the same quarter last year when the employment tribunal fees were still in force.
These claims include unfair dismissal claims which are up by 34% and equal pay claims which have increased by 33%, the latter driven in large part by the gender pay reporting requirements. Unlawful deductions from wages have also continued to attract a large number of claims.
Furthermore, awards of compensation during this quarter have increased. The type of claim with the largest average financial awards was disability discrimination claims where the average was £30,700 and the average award for an unfair dismissal claim was £15,007.
Also since the fee refund scheme was introduced in October 2017, 12,400 payments totalling £10,615,000 has been paid back to claimants. This does mean that many employees who brought claims under the old tribunal fee regime still have not received their payment. If you brought a claim against your employer/former employer and paid a fee but have yet to receive a refund, please let us know and we can guide you as to the steps needed to recover this.
Other positive news also comes from the HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) who published a progress report about its forthcoming changes to the employment tribunals. The report includes information about HMCTS’ aim to develop a new tribunal service which is more user-friendly and it shall include the ability to resolve some cases online and by video. Work is expected to start on this project in 2020 and should conclude by mid-2021.
HMCTS is also planning to roll out a digital case management system for the Employment Appeal Tribunal and this will enable claims and cases to be managed by the court digitally. In all, the future technological advancements of the employment tribunals certainly look promising!