Employment tribunal statistics

• The largest single category of claim was unfair dismissal at almost 20 per cent of all claims, closely followed by claims for equal pay and then unpaid wages and breach of contract.
• Along with the sharp rise in unfair dismissal complaints, claims for redundancy pay rose from 7,313 to 10,839 and for failure to inform and consult over redundancy, from 4,480 to 11,371.
• Although sex discrimination claims have shown a significant drop of 30 per cent in the last year, down to 18,637, most other claims alleging discrimination have continued to rise. Race discrimination claims and religion or belief discrimination claims have risen by 20 per cent and 17 per cent respectively (to 4,983 and 832 respectively), disability discrimination claims rose by 13 per cent (to 6,578), age discrimination claims by a huge 30 per cent (to 3,801), whilst claims alleging discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation have remained slightly more static, revealing a small increase of 3 per cent.
• For the first time in four years, equal pay disputes have reduced in number. These claims now account for 17 per cent of all claims, a reduction on last year but nonetheless placing them just behind unfair dismissal as the most common cause of complaint.
• Whilst the average award of costs in tribunal cases showed a slight rise, in five cases last year the tribunal once more showed itself willing to make awards of £10,000 or more, on two occasions to claimants.