Employment Tribunal Cases

During the period between January and March 2023, the Employment Tribunals received a total of 23,000 claims. Out of these, 8,100 were single claims, representing a 5% increase compared to the same period last year, while 15,000 were multiple claims, experiencing a significant surge of 39% compared to the previous year.

Amongst the claim types, there has been notable growth in specific categories compared to last year. Claims for unauthorised deduction of wages increased by 57%, redundancy pay claims rose by 55%, and breach of contract claims increased by 49%.

Further analysis of the statistics reveals the following key claim types during the three-month period of January to March 2023: over 4,600 claims for unfair dismissal, more than 7,400 claims for unauthorised deduction from wages, over 6,000 claims for breach of contract, around 5,900 claims for working time issues, over 1,700 claims for redundancy pay, and approximately 900 claims for sex discrimination.

It would seem that despite a 49-week wait to get a case heard at a Tribunal, employees still see this as the most viable way to hear their grievances relating to their employment.

Compensation costs

The annual award statistics for 2021/22 (beginning of April to the end of March) released in January 2023 show the following:

  • Unfair dismissal – There were 630 claims that received compensation for unfair dismissal (an increase of 51% compared to 2020/21).  The maximum award was £165,000 and the average award was £13,541 (compared to an average award of £12,080 in 2020/2021).
  • Discrimination – There were 200 discrimination cases where compensation was awarded in 2021/2022.  The maximum amount awarded was £228,117 in a race discrimination case, with disability discrimination closing second with a maximum award of £225,893.  The most significant average award compared to other protected characteristics was received in sexual orientation claims.

For the 2021/2022 year, the following are the maximum, mean and median awards:

Claim type Maximum award Mean award Median award
Unfair dismissal £165,000 £13,541 £7,650
Race discrimination £228,177 £27,607 £14,120
Sex discrimination £184,961 £24,630 £17,959
Disability discrimination £225,893 £26,172 £14,000
Religious discrimination £35,000 £19,709 £25,968
Sexual orientation discrimination £88,362 £32,360 £28,384
Age discrimination £60,914 £18,623 £12,480