Survey on Employment Tribunals and Applications

In addition to our blog on Employment Tribunal statistics, the BIS has also conducted a survey on Tribunal users and applications received in 2013.  The document is rather large at 280 pages, however if you would like to read the full report, it is at httpss://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/316704/bis-14-708-survey-of-employment-tribunal-applications-2013.pdf.

The most interesting findings of the survey were:

Employers

• Two in five employers had had a Tribunal claim issued against them in the previous two years;
• 67% of employers hire a representative at the final hearing;
• 25% of small employers said that they were notified by their employees about an impending claim before it was issued;
• 79% of cases had an offer which resulted in settlement.  The first offer was made by the employer 61% of the time, with the most common reason being cited as “financial reasons”;
• 28% of the claims were against private sector employers.

Employees

• 49% of Claimants said that paying an issue fee would have influenced their decision to bring a claim in a negative way;
• 92% of Claimants are no longer working for the employer that they were claiming against;
• 33% of Claimants are represented, but of this number, a whopping 65% said that their representation was free (and this doesn’t include lay representatives!);
• Only 17% of cases went to a final hearing.  Claimants aged 65 or over were more likely to go to a tribunal hearing than those aged under 25;
• The median compensatory award was £3,000;
• The mean length of time it took for Claimants to secure alternative employment was 19 weeks;
• 77% of Claimants thought it was “worthwhile” bringing proceedings against their employer.

11% of the cases which were disposed of at a final hearing were appealed (although it is not clear how many of these appeals were successful).

Make of this what you will but the median compensatory award statistics remain striking and perhaps illustrate that there has been too much media scare-mongering about the alleged compensation culture and the need to reduce the cap on compensation for Tribunal claims.