Latest Trends in Employment Tribunal Statistics - October to December 2017
What are the key trends for the period from October to December 2017?
- The number of single claims (those made by a sole employee/worker relating to alleged breaches of employment rights) and disposals received by employment tribunals rose by 90% and 21% respectively for the period October to December 2017, against the same period in 2016, resulting in a 66% increase in the outstanding caseload.
- The number of multiple claims (those made by two or more people bring proceedings arising out of the same facts, usually against common employer) increased by 467%, to 31,921 claims with disposals decreasing by 55% compared to the same quarter in 2016.
The trend in multiple claims is more volatile than single claims due to large numbers of claims against a single employer which can skew the national figures. For example the increase can be attributed to one large multiple claim against an airline issued in the last quarter of 2017. - Since 2014/15, single claims had remained relatively stable. However, since the abolition of employment tribunal fees on 26 July 2017, around 3,000 new cases have been issued every month.
It is worth noting that this is significantly lower than the number of cases issued before the introduction of tribunal fees, when the average was around 5,000 new cases each month.
It is highly likely that this is due to the introduction of the cap of a year's pay on the maximum tribunal award for unfair dismissal claims, introduced in July 2013, and the obligation on claimants in the majority of cases to commence a period of ACAS early conciliation before they can proceed to file a claim with the employment tribunal, introduced in April 2014. - Employment tribunals received 4,800 applications under the employment tribunal fee refund scheme in the period October to December 2017 (see Legal update, Employment tribunal and EAT fees: refund scheme rolled out in full). Of these, 3,337 refund payments were made, amounting to £2.76 million.