Annual Employment Tribunal Statistics 2011/12

The Ministry of Justice has published the annual Employment Tribunal and EAT statistics for 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012.  Key points to note include:

• There was a significant (15%) fall in the number of Employment Tribunal claims.  Disability discrimination, religion and belief discrimination, and failure to inform and consult on redundancy claims bucked the trend and rose slightly.
• There was however a slight (5.8%) increase in claims received by the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
• Of the unfair dismissal cases which proceeded to a hearing, less than half (45%) were successful.  In addition, compensation was awarded in less than half (47%) of the successful cases, which represents only 21% of all unfair dismissal cases proceeding to a hearing.  The average award in unfair dismissal claims was £9,133.  Only 2% of all unfair dismissal awards were over £50,000. 
• The number of costs awards rose from 487 to 611 (excluding one case involving 800 claimants), the large majority of which were awarded in favour of respondents.