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Employment Tribunals Service annual statistics show a record high increase in employment tribunal claims.

After many months of delay, the annual statistics for the Employment Tribunals Service and the Employment Appeal Tribunal have finally been published. The statistics cover the period 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008.

The number of employment tribunal claims increased from 132,577 in 2006/07 to 189,303 in 2007/08. This represents a massive increase of 43% and is a record high. The 189,303 claims lodged covered 296,963 jurisdictions or complaints (for example, where a claim is made for both unfair dismissal and sex discrimination at the same time).

The statistics also show that:

• 62% of all cases were withdrawn, settled or otherwise disposed of before a tribunal hearing, 11% were struck out without a hearing, 13% were successful at tribunal, 9% were dismissed at preliminary hearing or were unsuccessful at tribunal and 4% were subject to a default judgment.
• 14% of claims lodged were for unfair dismissal, 12% were for unauthorised deduction from wages, 8% were for breach of contract, 19% related to the Working Time Regulations, 12% related to sex, race or disability discrimination, 21% were for equal pay and the remainder related to other matters. This means that equal pay disputes topped the league.
• Age discrimination claims leapt from 972 in 2006/07 to 2,949 in 2007/08.
• 6,637 claims were initially rejected by the tribunal. Of these, only 2,223 were subsequently re-submitted and accepted. The remainder were either never re-submitted or were re-submitted but not accepted.
• The maximum unfair dismissal award was £76,536 and the average award was £8,058.
• The maximum race discrimination award was £68,991 and the average award was £14,566.
• The maximum sex discrimination award was £131,466 and the average award was £11,263.
• The maximum disability discrimination award was £227,208 and the average award was £19,523.
• Costs were awarded to the claimant in 134 cases and to the respondent in 327 cases.
• The average costs award was £2,095.

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