NEWS IN BRIEF

The Tribunals Service has just published its annual report for the year 2009 to 2010 which shows an increase of 56% in employment claims over the previous year. This, it said, is largely due to the rise in multiple claims (up by nearly 90%) but also partly as a result of the changing economic climate.

Other key findings include:

• An increase of 14% in single claims over the year
• An increase of 17% in claims associated with unfair dismissal, breach of contract and redundancy, probably because of the economic recession
• An increase of 22% in the number of cases being disposed of by tribunals, almost three fifths of which were single cases. Despite the increase in the number of disposals, this did not keep pace with the number of cases being received resulting in an increase in cases waiting to be heard
• An increase in the number of claims under the working time directive from 24,000 in 2008-9 to 95,200 in 2009-10 which the Tribunals Service attributes to the 10,600 airline cases that are resubmitted every three months
• A drop in the number of equal pay claims - from 62,700 in 2007-8 to 45,700 in 2008-9 to 37,400 in 2009-10
• The percentage of single accepted cases being heard within 26 weeks of receipt fell from 74% in 2009 to 2009 to 65%
• In terms of performance targets, compliance has declined for both employment tribunals and the EAT.

To access the document, go to: Tribunal Annual Statistics for 2009/10