The Ministry of Justice has published its Employment Tribunals and EAT Statistics 2011-12 (1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012)
Some of the highlights are as follows:
1. There were 186,300 claims accepted by employment tribunals during this period – a 15 per cent decrease on 2010-11;
2. The number of costs awards rose from 487 in 2010-11 to 1,411. However, this figure is misleading, as this includes a case in which 800 claimants were ordered to share the liability of one costs award. If that case is counted as one case, then the total number of costs awards is in fact 612. Also, 81 per cent of the 612 awards were awarded in favour of the Respondents.
3. The average unfair dismissal award was £9,133 , while the median award was £4,560. Only 2 per cent of all unfair dismissal awards were over £50,000. The current statutory cap on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal is £72,300. The biggest award for unfair dismissal was £173,408, which is in excess of the statutory cap – the cap does not apply to unfair dismissal cases if the dismissal is due to whistleblowing.
4. The median awards in other successful discrimination claims were:
£13,505 for sexual orientation discrimination (highest award: £27,473);
£8,928 for disability discrimination (highest award: £390,871);
£6,746 for sex discrimination (highest award: £89,700);
£6,065 for age discrimination (highest award: £144,100);
£5,256 for race discrimination (highest award: £4,445,023); and
£4,267 for religion or belief discrimination (highest award: £59,522).
The Government is currently consulting on changes to the compensatory award limit in unfair dismissal cases (click here for full details.)